


Trust Falls

by PitViperOfDoom



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is lonely in other news water is wet, Akuma Possession, Apocalyptic Horsepersons - Freeform, Chloe causes yet another akuma, Gen, Marinette's usual silly nonsense, Otherwise this story is not very romance-oriented
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-05-23 13:50:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6118357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitViperOfDoom/pseuds/PitViperOfDoom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette finds herself in a dangerous situation when a double-akuma attack leaves her trapped in school and virtually defenseless. But it's not the end of the world; it turns out there are people you can always count on, even if you don't quite know why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sometimes Chat Noir still marveled at the fact that his reaction to being mobbed by a swarm of glowing ladybugs was a sigh of relief instead of confused high-pitched screaming.

Maybe it wasn't that much of a surprise. They were _magic_ ladybugs, after all, and they always did helpful things, like fix property damage and free him from mind control and, in this case, clean off the sticky residue that had slimed him upside-down to the side of the Arc de Triomphe.

His landing was less than graceful, and he found himself flat on his back and staring up at the smiling sideways face of his partner.

"Now, what have we learned?" she asked.

He offered as innocent a grin as he could manage. "Giant snail monsters don't like it when you tell them to 'look at that S car go'?"

Laughing, she helped him to his feet. "Close enough. Thanks for that opening, kitty."

"I could tell you had it handled." Chat rolled his shoulders in a carefree shrug. "You know me, my lady. Always ready to take one for the team."

Ladybug scowled at him in mock disapproval. "I wish you wouldn't."

"If wishes were fishes, _this_ cat would have a lovely dinner." He waggled his ears, startling a laugh out of her.

"How do you even do that? They aren't even real ears, I can see the clips!"

He smiled his widest and winked. "I think you know the answer."

She gave him another playful mock-scowl. "If I knew, then I wouldn't have asked, silly cat."

"All right then, I'll tell you." Chat slung a friendly arm around her shoulders, threw his free hand outward as if he was showing her the world, and proclaimed, " _Magic_."

It was very pleasant to stand like that, hugging her one-armed while she leaned into it comfortably and rolled her eyes at his melodrama. He would have loved to stay that way a little longer, but the synchronized beeps from their jewelry reminded him why he couldn't.

Ladybug pulled back. "That's our cue," she said brusquely.

"It's really a shame that we can't hang out unless someone's trying to destroy a national landmark." Chat pouted, letting his ears droop.

She tweaked his nose with a smile. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder, kitty."

"Very true. No wonder mine belongs to you."

"Oh, _you._ " Ladybug swatted his shoulder and tried (unsuccessfully, in Chat's opinion) not to smile harder. "Go on, before you run out of time."

"Good point. I'd better get back to school - lunch is almost over." He was off and running before she had the chance to reply.

He meant to say it in a carefree, offhand way, and he hoped that it worked. If he was too obvious about it then she'd scold him, or worse, get tight-lipped for a while. Hopefully she wouldn't be too annoyed with him – it wasn't much to go on, but she got so sensitive sometimes.

He wasn't even sure why he bothered dropping hints like that. There was hardly any point in leaving her clues to find him when she didn't want to look in the first place.

* * *

"I hate it when he does that."

There was no one around to take notice of Marinette grumbling as she power-walked her way back to class. Therefore there was also no one around to see who answered back.

"He didn't push," Tikki pointed out from her perch on Marinette's shoulder. "It wasn't much anyway. All he really told you was that he goes to school, and his lunch hour ends somewhere between-"

"I _know_ , Tikki."

The kwami bobbed up to hover in front of Marinette's face, floating backward to speak eye to eye as Marinette hurried along. "It's nothing you haven't already guessed."

"But now it's confirmed," Marinette pointed out. "Before, there was a possibility of me being wrong, but now-"

"You wouldn't be the first Ladybug to confide in another bearer, Marinette."

"I don't want to confide at all!" Marinette wrung her hands. "It's _dangerous_. Maybe it was different in, in ancient Egypt where there were no cellphones or instant communication, but now? It's bad enough that Alya's practically breathing down Ladybug's neck with her blog – I mean, can you imagine if she found out who I was?"

"But we aren't talking about Alya," Tikki reminded her. "We're talking about Chat Noir."

"That's even worse," Marinette mumbled.

"How so?"

"Because we're already targets, aren't we?" On instinct, Marinette tossed a look over her shoulder. "All these akuma, everything Hawkmoth does, it's to draw _us_ out. What if he found one of us? What if Chat Noir told me who he was, and Hawkmoth..." She let it trail off there. "We could be Hawkmoth's best weapons against each other, and the only thing stopping him from doing something like that is the fact that no one knows who we are. It's too dangerous, Tikki."

Her kwami sighed. "I know, Marinette. But still..."

"You understand, don't you, Tikki?"

"Of course." Tikki's eyes shone earnestly at her. "And if I didn't trust you to make the right decision in the end, I wouldn't have chosen you."

"I just wish _he_ did." They had reached the school, barely on time. "Why do you think he keeps trying?"

Tikki returned to the safety of Marinette's purse. "I couldn't say."

"Has this kind of thing... happened before?" Marinette asked cautiously. "One trying to find the other?"

"Of course it has."

"Take your best guess, then," Marinette said. "Why do you think it matters to him so much?" Marinette was too busy watching where she was going to look down at her kwami's face, but she could imagine the thoughtful look that she might see if she did.

"Well..." Tikki said quietly. "Did you ever think he might be lonely?"

Marinette shot a surprised look down at her purse. Because... well, _no_. She hadn't. Marinette didn't know a lot about Chat Noir personally, and she liked to keep it that way. But by now she was quite familiar with what kind of person he was. Brash, bold, witty, a bit of a loudmouth. She knew he went to school, so he was probably the class clown, the kind of student who had a detention at least once a week but was still well beloved by teachers. He cracked jokes without being insincere, he flirted without being pushy or disrespectful, he was lively without being overwhelming or obnoxious-

No, in Marinette's experience, people like that never had a problem with making friends. It had to be something else.

So lost in her thoughts was she that she almost missed her classroom door, and she completely missed the other latecomer hurrying in from the other direction.

Marinette ran smack into someone's chest, jarring out of her ruminations with a startled yelp. “Oops-”

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!"

"It's fine, it's - it's n-no-" Marinette's words sputtered to a halt like a broken engine when she blinked her way back into the present and saw who she had crashed into. "Um. Oh."

Adrien Agreste had his hand on her shoulder (he was touching her, touching her, his _hand_ was on her _shoulder_ ) as if to steady her and keep her from falling (so chivalrous, so kind, someone help) and Marinette clamped her mouth shut as a precaution against babbling.

"Sorry, I really should have been watching where I was going." Adrien smiled ruefully. She was a little disappointed when he let go of her shoulder, but he more than made up for it by holding the door open for her.

"No, I'm fine! Um, you're fine. I mean – thanks." Ducking her head to hide her blush, she hurried inside and all but fled to the safety of her seat beside Alya.

* * *

Honestly, Adrien wasn't sure why he still let it bother him.

He didn't _think_ it was anything specific he'd done. If it was, he really wished he knew so he could apologize.

It just didn't sit well with him, not getting along with someone and not knowing why. He wasn't exactly drowning in friends, but he had Nino, he had Chloe, he was pretty sure he had Alya, and he was basically cool with everyone else in class. Except Marinette.

At first he'd thought that she was just shy, but that couldn't be it – she was the most take-charge person he'd ever seen, from producing the student film to sweeping the class presidential election to calling Chloe on her nonsense on an almost daily basis. Then he'd thought that maybe his modeling and fashion background was a little alienating, and she just didn't know how to talk to him - but that definitely wasn't it, because it turned out she loved fashion and was a budding designer herself. His third guess was that his minor celebrity status was intimidating, but he'd known that was wrong the second he'd met her as Chat Noir. Marinette had been a lot of things then, and "intimidated" definitely wasn't one of them.

There were a few moments that he could recall where he thought that maybe – maybe – there might be a chance at friendship. But it always went back to normal eventually, where the most he could get out of her in terms of conversation was either silence-filling rambling or monosyllabic bare-minimum responses before she turned the other way. If they did spend any time together, it was only because Alya had to practically force her to talk to him.

He wished he could be friends with Ladybug in real life. Maybe someday.

His attention drifted back to Ms. Bustier's lecturing. “The castles of the Middle Ages were not built for comfort,” she was saying. “Though they housed nobility, they were made for defending against invasions and sieges. Curtain walls were a common feature of defensive architecture. Before the invention of gunpowder, these walls were nearly unbreakable. Often, the only ways past them were either over them using siege ladders or siege towers, or under them by tunneling...”

Oh, right. Medieval studies. Most classes in their year were doing this unit. Wasn't there a report due in a few weeks? Something about siege warfare...

"You okay, man?"

The smile was a habit, bright, dazzling, and picture-perfect. “Yeah, I'm fine. I was a little late coming in, so I'm still catching my breath.” It wasn't quite a lie; he was still a little sore from getting wall-slammed by a gastropod the size of a truck.

“Don't you have, like, a chauffeur?” Nino pointed out. “What, did he make you get out and push?”

For a moment Adrien strongly considered telling him yes and leaving it at that, but the last time Nino thought he was being mistreated at home, he'd been corrupted by an akuma almost on the spot. “I'm just a little out of it,” he said finally. “Seriously, Nino, I'll be fine.”

“Hope so,man. I'm pretty sure we're running laps in gym today.”

“I can handle it.” He drifted out again. Marinette and Alya were whispering behind him, and in spite of himself, he couldn't help tuning into their conversation.

“So, I saw you and Adrien came in late,” Alya muttered. “Anything I should know about?”

“Alya, oh my god, no.”

“C'mon, you didn't at least talk to him?”

“No.” Marinette's voice was carefully blank of emotion. “There wasn't anything to talk about. We were already late.”

“That's too bad. I was hoping maybe you guys walked together or something.”

“Alya _no_ , don't be ridiculous. I mean, are you kidding?”

“Mari, you're blowing this way out of proportion.”

“You're one to talk,” Marinette muttered. “You know me. If he's around and I don't have you as a human buffer, it's _awful_.”

Oh.

Okay then.

Adrien's mood sank a little further as Ms. Bustier moved on to explain siege defenses.

It was almost a relief to leave for gym class. He was one of the first people out of the classroom, and noted in the back of his mind that Alya and Marinette were still dawdling at their seats. Unconsciously he picked up speed. At least running might take his mind off his sore back and Ladybug's unknown identity and Marinette's weird behavior around him.

The previous class was already trickling its way out of the locker rooms. Adrien could catch snippets of conversation from the tired-looking students.

“-that was awful and I never want to stand up again-”

“-I dunno, I could've done like two more of those.”

“Don't stress too much about the report, okay?”

“Thanks, I just – it's big, you know?”

“I'll totally help. Medieval war tactics are like my specialty.”

“Heheh, okay.”

“Don't laugh, I'm serious! I love that stuff. I made an almost-working ballista when I was like twelve.”

“Okay, if you say so – whoops!”

Adrien was almost directly in front of the girl when she tripped right into him. What was it with him and running into people today? Gently he caught her by the shoulders and steadied her as best he could.

“S-sorry!” The girl regained her footing, clutching his arm for balance. “Sorry, I fell, I didn't mean to.”

“It's no problem,” Adrien assured her as her friend, a taller dark-haired boy, caught up. “Are you okay?”

She smiled, still flushed with embarrassment. “Yeah, just – um. Not enough lunch, I guess. I'm a little shaky. Sorry.”

“Oh, don't worry,” a familiar voice rang out from behind Adrien. “You look like you've had enough lunch, trust me.” Adrien shut his eyes, swallowing his dismay. Why now? Didn't he have enough to worry about?

As Chloe came sauntering up, the girl blinked in confusion. Her friend looked like he was ready to start a fight right then and there. The floor drew Adrien's eyes, and he tried to ignore the dread crawling up his spine.

“In fact,” Chloe went on while Sabrina tittered at her shoulder. “You look like you could use _two_ gym periods, don't you think?” Her gaze raked scornfully over the girl's body.

Adrien saw the girl's left hand wring at her side. Her friend stepped closer, drawing up to his full height. “Excuse me?” he growled.

Chloe ignored him. The girl's hand was still on Adrien's arm from when she'd tripped, and he could have sworn he saw a vein in Chloe's eyelid twitch. “Hey, are you done groping him yet?” she snapped. “You have some nerve, putting your hands on him like that.”

The girl snatched her hands behind her back as if she'd been burned. She drew back, and her friend placed himself firmly between her and Chloe. “And you have some nerve running your mouth like that,” he retorted. “Are you trying to start a fight or something?”

He'd already fought an akuma today. The last thing he needed right now was for Chloe to help Hawkmoth make another one. “Chloe, it's fine, she just tripped,” he said, because he could always hold on to the hope that this time she'd listen for once. _I would love to be able to shake hands with a member of the opposite sex without you starting a third world war._

“I'll trip her if she keeps bothering you.”

Adrien winced. “Chloe, that's not fair-”

In the next second she was in his space, stretching up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek. He hadn't been expecting it, and it took all of his self-control not to flinch. “All's fair in love and war, Adrien,” she chirped.

“You don't have to _start_ a war every time-” She pouted at him, and his voice trailed off. He hated it when she pouted. Pouting was Chloe-speak for _please stop talking or you'll hurt my feelings_. Marinette had provoked Chloe once, and her uncle had been corrupted within fifteen minutes. Ladybug had shut her down, and Chloe herself had been corrupted almost immediately. Chloe with hurt feelings meant either more work for Chat Noir, or one less friend for Adrien Agreste. And it wasn't like he had a lot of them to spare. “Look, just – it was an accident, okay? Leave her alone.”

“That's what she _says_.”

“It _was_.” The girl spoke up for the first time since Chloe had arrived. “I-it was an ac – an accid– I – I d-didn't muh-mean-”

“I – _duh – muh – bluh_ ,” Chloe stuttered mockingly. “ _Somebody's_ a bad liar.”

“Chloe _come on,_ just-” Adrien tried to nudge her along, his nerves buzzing with unease. He'd seen akuma pop up over far less.

“Look, just back off or we're gonna have problems,” the girl's friend snapped.

“ _You're_ gonna have problems.” Chloe tossed her ponytail and stalked past them, shouldering the girl as she passed. “I'd cut back on the chocolates, sweetie.”

“Sorry, I'm really sorry-” Both of the other students brushed past Adrien, the girl half-hidden with her friend's arm around her shoulders. Defeated, he continued on his way and cringed at his own burning shame. Chloe really had gone too far that time – he should have said something. Why hadn't he stopped her?

 _Marinette never has trouble standing up to her_.

Well, Marinette wasn't her friend. Marinette didn't even like Chloe; she never talked to her unless it was absolutely necessary, and even then, she practically had to be forced to unless she was telling Chloe off for being mean.

_...Kind of like... me?_

Marinette never talked to him unless she was forced to, either.

Adrien paused, blinking as the unpleasant thought entered his mind and rooted itself there. Shaking his head, he moved on. Maybe running himself ragged in gym class was exactly what he needed right now.

* * *

In a quiet, otherwise empty hallway, two students stood together and stared forward, as if in a trance. If one were looking carefully enough, or watching from the peripherals, one might have glimpsed the faint, glowing outline of a butterfly over both of their cold, silent faces.

 _Hello, War, Famine. I am Hawkmoth. You have both suffered poisonous insults from a common foe – a_ _very_ _common foe. If you like, I can help you to be harbingers of her destruction – and that of anyone else who has ever wronged you. I only ask a small favor in return._

The offer was given, and – with a subtle nudge to a pair of angry, pliant minds – accepted.

 


	2. Chapter 2

"Did you at least say hi?" Alya pressed.

"Of course I said hi! I mean... sort of..." Marinette waffled a little. They were among the stragglers on the way to gym class, and she used this excuse to speed up and, hopefully, escape the brunt of Alya's mild exasperation.

"Sort of? What do you mean, sort of?" Not to be deterred, Alya trotted to catch up. "C'mon, girl, you either said hi or you didn't."

"I said... um... things?" Marinette winced. "I can't really remember what I said, it happened so fast and after I bumped into him all I could really think about was escaping."

Alya narrowed her eyes shrewdly. "Oh, so you bumped into him? Are we talking a literal full-contact collision, or just a metaphorical, 'I-bumped-into-him-at-the-store' kind of bumping?"

"The, uh. First one." Marinette flushed warmly from her cheeks to her neck, only to glare at her friend when Alya snickered. "I was in a hurry! And he didn't see me either..."

"Did you fall?" Alya asked. "If you fell, he could've helped you up! Then you would've gotten to _hold his hand_."

"Alya, don't be dumb," Marinette spluttered, though she couldn't help wringing her hand at the thought. "He was nice about it anyway, he apologized, and then we went in. That's all."

"Too bad..." Alya's voice trailed off, and she halted midstep and put her hand out in front of Marinette, stopping her.

Marinette blinked. Half a hallway and they'd be in the courtyard, and they were already behind. "What is it?"

"Shh. You hear that?"

Marinette pressed her lips closed and listened. Sure enough, she could hear the sounds of shouting up ahead. The two of them shared a single look, then took off running together down the hallway.

The noise was coming from near the locker rooms, that much Marinette was sure. And of course, as usual, Alya was running straight for it. She already had her phone out and was turning on the video camera as she ran.

"It could just be a fight," Marinette muttered to her as they hurried down the stairs. Other students were in the courtyard already, drawn to the noise.

"Yeah, it could be." Alya skipped the last three steps and landed with a grunt. "Or it could be an akuma, and I can get some great shots of when Ladybug and Chat Noir show up."

Marinette's heart skipped a beat automatically, and she stalled uncertainly for half a step. Alya could be right, and if this was an akuma, would it be better to duck out now and transform? People were already distracted; it wouldn't be hard to find a quiet corner to call on Tikki.

Alya was pulling ahead, and on instinct Marinette rushed to catch up. The least she could do was make sure it was an akuma at all, and if it was, then she could stay close enough to keep an eye on Alya. If that girl wasn't careful, her blogging could get her in serious trouble one day.

_Wait a minute, the Pharaoh incident. It already has._

Without warning, a piercing and incredibly familiar high-pitched scream rang out over the other voices, and Chloe came barreling out into the courtyard, red-faced from yelling. Her hair was in a disarray, her jacket hung loosely from her shoulders, and she was shielding her stomach with her arms. Other students scattered after her, and those that had gathered nearby seemed to take the hint and were backing away.

Except Alya, of course. Alya was dodging the other kids like a fish swimming upriver, and it was all Marinette could do just to keep her in sight.

The outpouring of fleeing students went down to a trickle as the last stragglers made their escape, and a chill went crawling up Marinette's back. Breathing through her nose, she coughed when the smell of thick dust hit her and stopped her in her tracks. For a moment she could have sworn that the patter of running sneakers sounded like the thunder of distant hooves, but the feeling was gone in the next second, as if her ears had popped. By now the others were looking back, checking to see if they were being chased. Alya was virtually alone up ahead, holding her phone up in an effort to catch... whatever it was on video. Marinette could only watch in growing horror as the source of the pandemonium stepped into view.

It wasn't just an akuma. An akuma would have been bad enough. It was _t_ _wo_ akuma.

Which, counting the giant snail from just an hour or so earlier, made three in one day.

She didn't recognize either of them, and she doubted they were students she knew. Just by seeing their color schemes she was reminded, in a twisted way, of herself and Chat Noir. The smaller of the two was dressed all in black, in a slimming outfit that made her look thinner than she really was, her face painted and contoured to look pale and gaunt. The other was dressed in red – not like ladybugs and lucky red _lai see_ envelopes, but ugly, sickly bloodpuddle-red. Something glinted on his chest, like a pin or a necklace, but she couldn't see it from this distance.

Marinette caught up with Alya and pulled her back, just as the one in black started speaking. "What's wrong, sweetie?" Her teeth showed sharp and white in a wolfish smile. Marinette tracked her line of vision back to - surprise, surprise – Chloe Bourgeois. "Tummy trouble?" She pointed, and something dark and translucent flew through the air, past frightened and dodging students, and struck Chloe in the stomach. She doubled up with a whine of pain, and the corrupted girl's voice rang out mockingly. "What are you whining for? Don't you know there are starving children in Africa?" Her smile flashed again. "Well I'm Famine, and when I'm done there's gonna be starving children here, too."

"Don't get too excited," the one in red spoke up. "I'm pretty sure War comes _before_ Famine."

"You can't do this to me!" Chloe wailed.

He smirked at her. "You don't like it? Too bad. Unlike some people, I don't start fights unless I'm ready to finish them."

Marinette drew Alya back and away from the two akuma, already tense and ready to run for cover. "Alya, you need to hide. Or better yet, get out of here."

"I'll stay back," Alya muttered back. "I need to be here when Ladybug shows up." Her eyes narrowed. "War and Famine, huh?"

"Like the Horsemen, I guess," Marinette whispered. A dreadful thought occurred to her. "Think that means there are two more of these guys hiding somewhere?"

"I hope not. Half an apocalypse is bad enough."

War's voice rang out, cutting off further conversation. "Where do you think you're going?" There was a stampede toward the school's front doors. Marinette pulled a reluctant Alya along with her – if they could draw the akuma out into the open, away from the school, then they could minimize the damage. Even if Miraculous Cure would fix everything in the end, it would be nice to inconvenience people as little as possible. She half expected to see the akuma give chase, but they didn't.

They just sort of... stood there. War was grinning.

It unsettled her, even before she looked over and caught sight of students struggling uselessly with the closed doors.

"Are we locked in?" Alya hissed, still wielding her phone's camera.

"I think-"

"What's the matter?" War taunted. "Never been in a siege before? Nobody gets in, nobody gets out!"

Oh, great.

"Everybody scatter!" she shouted. "Find somewhere to hide and stay out of sight!"

Somewhere nearby, another voice was echoing her call, but she was past paying attention.

Grabbing Alya by the elbow, Marinette spotted a half-open classroom door and made a break for it. By now every student was fleeing the scene, forcing Marinette to slow down, pause, and dodge to keep from crashing into people. Alya ran backwards to keep up, still filming the akuma as Marinette towed her along.

"Oh man, you should see this," Alya called over her shoulder. "Or... actually no, run faster. Looks like Famine's about to do something big!"

Sure enough, Famine's high laughter rang out through the courtyard, and Marinette chanced a look over her shoulder. The corrupted girl's hands were raised, with more smoky magic gathering at her fingertips. "You guys might want to slow down," she taunted. "It's not good to run on an empty stomach, you know."

"Empty stomach?" Alya echoed. "Lunch wasn't that long ago, what's she-"

The darkness burst outward, spreading from Famine's outstretched fingers in a round, rippling wave. Students screamed and jostled each other, trying to run. Alya shoved against Marinette, silently urging her onward. But there was no escape – Famine's attack, whatever it was, spread to every corner of the courtyard, and beyond. Marinette was caught in it, stomach lurching. She stumbled and nearly fell.

Nausea hit her in a sickening wave, as if Famine's attack had plucked her up and dropped her on a boat in the middle of a storm. Marinette staggered again, praying she wouldn't throw up, only for the vertigo to release her in the next moment. She shook her head as she regained her balance, blinking away her daze.

Beside her, Alya clutched at her stomach with a groan. Marinette opened her mouth to ask if she was all right, only for her own stomach to twist painfully. It wasn't the same paralyzing nausea that she had just shaken off, but it was still almost enough to double her up in pain.

She wasn't sick, she realized; she was _hungry_. But it wasn't the comfortable hunger that itched in her stomach as she sat down to a meal; it was a painful, twisting emptiness, as if she hadn't eaten since lunch the day before. It was hunger to the point of queasiness.

"Are you okay?" Alya's hand was on her arm, steadying her even as Alya steadied herself. All around them, the other students were reacting the same way. Someone retched loudly.

"I'm fine," Marinette replied, shaking her head to clear it. "But we need to hide-"

And then War was among them.

"Hide?" he said contemptuously. "That's you're plan? You're sure you wouldn't rather stand and fight?"

His hand flashed out, pulsing red, and he touched Alya's shoulder.

"No!" Marinette jerked her back, dragging her away from the akuma, but something told her the damage was already done. Her heart lurched as she remembered Chronogirl, and how it only took one touch from her to erase people from existence.

But Alya did not freeze in place. She stumbled along after Marinette, and her grip on Marinette's arm tightened until it was painful.

"Alya...?" Marinette stared at her fearfully. She pulled at her arm, but Alya's fingers only dug in harder. "Ow, Alya, you're hurting me-"

Alya turned her head to face her, and Marinette's blood froze at the sight.

Her friend glared at her with a dark hatred she hadn't seen since Heartbreaker, but it was different – instead of black lining her lips, Alya's eyes were ringed with dark red. As Marinette watched in horror, the redness overtook the whites of her friend's eyes, until it looked like they were suffused with blood.

Marinette tried to back away, but Alya's iron grip kept her from going far. "Alya," she whispered. "Alya, please let go."

Alya's red-rimmed eyes narrowed, and she squeezed until Marinette bit back a whimper of pain. Her friend's lip curled back until her teeth showed in a scornful sneer.

" _Make me_ _,_ " she snarled.

Beyond them, War's voice rose until it echoed throughout the courtyard. "Fight for me," he urged, and Marinette watched in horror as he went from student to student, spreading his curse with every touch. "Fight any who stand in your way. No retreat, no surrender. Teach them the ways of war, and remember – _finish what you start_ _._ "

"Hear that?" Alya said. "So what's it gonna be? Are you gonna stand and fight, or run like a coward?"

Marinette gritted her teeth against the pain in her arm and the sourness in her empty stomach. "How about if I fight like a coward?"

Alya blinked. "What-?"

Marinette lunged and jammed her fingers into Alya's ribs. Her friend tried to twist away, but Marinette kept up and tickled furiously under her arms until Alya gave an undignified squawk and let go.

She chanced a look over her shoulder. All around her, red-eyed students were turning on the rest, restraining them from running or pulling them within War's reach. It was happening _fast_ , and as more and more students fell under the akuma's spell, they began to spread out. They dispersed in small groups – Marinette spotted Juleka running with Rose and Max at her heels, while Alix and Kim ran off side by side in another directions – and headed for the classrooms.

In the midst of the confusion, Marinette broke from the crowd and slipped down a hallway, stumbling a little when her hunger brought a momentary wave of dizziness. She just needed a moment, that was all. Just long enough to duck out of sight, and then she could focus on fixing this.

She turned a corner, teeth grinding – the shouts and screams of her schoolmates were still well within hearing range, especially with War spreading his curse from the courtyard to the classrooms. But that was okay, because she could fix all this. She was a little dizzy still, but it was nothing a little Miraculous magic couldn't fix.

Heart pounding, she opened her purse. “No time to lose, Tikki. Spots on!” She braced herself, ready to leap back into the fray once she was properly armed.

“Marinette...”

At the sound of Tikki's voice, she looked down at her side. Her kwami had made no move to leave the purse. Tikki sagged, one tiny hand clutching the zipper teeth, as if it took effort just to keep from sinking back to the bottom of the bag. Her free arm was wrapped around her stomach as if she was in pain, and her blue eyes shone wide with alarm.

Marinette listed slightly, one hand to the wall to keep herself upright. Her mind went blank.

“Oh,” she whispered. “That's not good.”

“I'm sorry, Marinette.”

“It's not your fault.” Marinette shook her head, warding off the distant threat of panic. “It'll be okay. We can... we can work around this.”

Tikki cocked her head from side to side. “I hear people coming, Marinette.”

Sure enough, the sound of running footsteps was slowly growing louder. Whether or not the students were headed straight for them was anyone's guess, but the last thing Marinette wanted to do was take an unnecessary risk. An idea came to her, and she slipped off her shoes and crept further down the hallway on silent stockinged feet. “We need a plan,” she whispered.

“There's no cover in his hallway,” Tikki replied. “We'd better keep moving if we want enough time to think one up.”

Marinette nodded and picked up speed. Just the feeling of moving forward, the rhythm of her softened footsteps, gave her a sense of purpose. It cleared her head and made thoughts flow more easily.

_What do I need?_

_I need to transform. As Ladybug, I can fix this mess like always. But I can't transform until I find a way to feed Tikki._

_Food, food, where can I get food...?_

She stopped short in the middle of the hallway, stock-still, and looked back.

“What is it, Marinette?” Tikki asked.

There were still people behind her, coming down the same hallway she had taken. Not a lot of people, just one or two at most. That was still enough to make trouble. Marinette hurried further, casting about for a good place to duck in and hide. Restroom was risky, empty classroom was also risky... janitor's closet! That would do it.

Without another thought she opened it as little as possible and slipped inside. She turned the knob as she shut the door, just to make as little noise as she could, and listened.

Before long, footsteps hurried past the door, two or three people if Marinette was any judge. They took their time passing her hiding place, and she could hear them calling and cajoling, trying to flush out anyone who might be hiding nearby. She could feel her heartbeat in her throat as they went past her door, until finally their voices began to fade. As soon as she dared, she opened the door a crack and peered out. The corrupted students had their backs to her, and there were no more coming that she could see. Silently she slipped out and hurried back the way she had come, toward the courtyard once more.

It was quieter now than it had been, but she could still hear shouting farther off. The crowd in the courtyard must have dispersed, at least most of it. And now War was spreading his curse to the rest of the classes. Marinette shuddered and crept on back to the courtyard entrance.

She leaned out for a peek, only to pull back. The crowd wasn't completely gone; a handful of her classmates still lingered, pacing through the area like guards on patrol. She recognized Alix and Mireille among them, but the rest were kids who weren't in any of her classes. None of them had spotted her yet, but they were all facing different directions. If she sneaked past some of them, she might still be spotted by the others. Carefully she breathed in and out, forced herself calm in spite of her pounding heartbeat, and tried to get her thoughts in order.

"What are you doing, Marinette?" Tikki's voice was so soft she barely heard it. Reaching down, Marinette scooped her kwami out of her purse and brought her up to her face so that they could hear each other's whispered words.

"Locker room," she replied. "I keep snacks in my locker for gym."

"It's risky," Tikki pointed out. "If they see you, they'll be able to corner you inside."

"Then I'll just have to make sure they don't see me." Gingerly, Marinette chanced another peek at the courtyard. For a terrifying split second she nearly locked eyes with one of the boys, but even after she flinched back into hiding he didn't call out or raise an alarm.

"Be more careful," Tikki chided her gently, but she patted Marinette's hand comfortingly. "You can do this, Marinette. Just use your head."

_But how?_

Marinette wracked her brain for a solution. If there was a pattern to their movements, she couldn't see it, and she didn't think she could watch them long enough to find one without being seen. Soft socks did her no good if she was in plain view. She couldn't pretend to be one of them, because her eyes would give her away immediately. Taking advantage of what little cover the courtyard offered wouldn't help with that many guards spread out and walking around.

The only remotely viable plan, in her mind, was also the riskiest. She wouldn't need to be stealthy; she would just need to be fast. If she could reach the locker room before anyone grabbed her, she could get in, find a way to barricade herself inside, and feed Tikki.

It was a pretty terrible idea. It was going in the "maybe" pile.

"Marinette," Tikki warned. Before she could ask what the matter was, she heard it – footsteps in the hallway behind her. The ones she had evaded earlier were coming back.

Marinette's pulse jumped ahead again, and she edged closer to the courtyard. If she went forward, she'd be caught. If she stayed where she was, she'd still be caught. Frantically she cast about for an escape - an empty classroom, another closet, anything. The nearest door was locked when she tried it, and if she went back to the janitor's closet, she risked running into the ones behind her.

She was trapped.

 _I need help,_ she thought frantically.

* * *

Famine's first wave of power had been enough to knock Adrien off his feet. Dimly he heard someone retching, and was hard-pressed not to follow their example. He shook his head furiously, fighting to clear away the sudden dizziness, and was off and running as soon as he got his feet under him again. His stomach heaved in protest, but he didn't stop until there was an entire length of hallway and two turned corners between him and the courtyard.

Lightheaded, he pressed one hand to the wall just to keep himself upright. It had only been an hour or so since he'd last eaten, but it felt like he'd been starving himself since yesterday.

 _Right._ He winced. _Famine. Makes perfect sense._

"Okay, Plagg," he whispered. "I know it's the second time today, but-"

A quiet, drawn-out groan interrupted him from his kwami's usual hiding place. Frowning, Adrien pulled back the front of his shirt and looked down to see what the matter was. Plagg was curled up at the bottom of the inner pocket, whimpering.

"Plagg, what's the matter?" He knew his kwami always got a little dramatic when he was hungry, but he'd made sure to feed Plagg after the first battle. It couldn't be that bad unless–

The thought was cut off when Adrien's own stomach twisted, reminding him of its sudden emptiness.

"Oh," he muttered. "Okay. That's not good."

He didn't have any cheese on him at the moment. He kept a moderate supply of it in his bag... which was currently sitting in his locker. That was a problem.

The next problem came when he heard the screaming.

From the sound of it, the courtyard was gradually descending into a miniature riot, and Adrien wasn't the only one who noticed. The nearest classroom door opened a crack, and a curious-looking teacher peered out with a bemused look on her face. He could hear someone shouting in the courtyard, pitching their voice to be heard above the rest, though he couldn't make out the words. Before long, he could hear the patter of running footsteps, coming closer.

Whatever that was, something told him he didn't want to get caught up in the middle of it. Without a moment's hesitation, Adrien turned and kept running.

There was a door down this way, a side exit that people took if they wanted a shortcut outside. If he was lucky, War had only blocked off the front entrance. If he slipped out, then he could either circle around to the locker rooms and grab his bag, or run to the nearest store. At the very least, he hadn't left his wallet in his bag, too.

He didn't slow down even as he approached the door, prepared to shove through it without stopping. In the end, all he could do was awkwardly crash into it when the door refused to open.

So he wasn't lucky. Big surprise there.

"No, no, no," he muttered, shoving it vainly with his shoulder. It wasn't locked; the knob turned and the door budged a few scant centimeters. But it refused to open no matter how hard he pushed, as if it was blocked from the outside. Frustrated, he kicked it one last time and stepped back to rethink things. He just needed a new plan. There was still time.

" _This way! Grab everyone you can!_ "

Or... not.

At the sound of incoming company, Adrien turned and sprinted farther down the hallway. Once he'd put enough distance between himself and his potential captors, he picked a door at random to slip in and hide. It was an empty classroom; the lights inside were off and, to his brief dismay, the door was locked. Quickly he fumbled his wallet out of his pocket and fished out his debit card.

The footsteps were coming closer. Time was short; if they caught up in time to see him close the door behind him, then the game was up.

It was dead simple compared to some of the locks at home. Adrien slid the card between the door and the doorjamb, wiggled it a little, and was almost surprised when it unlocked so fast. Though maybe it wasn't so surprising, to find cheap door locks at a public school whose funding sometimes hinged on the faculty's ability to keep the mayor's daughter happy.

(Heh, _hinged_.)

Adrien nudged the door open, slipped inside, and shut it behind him. For a few tense moments he crouched in the dark, waiting for the footsteps and voices to pass him by. When it had quieted outside, he found that he was trembling too much to keep crouching, and let himself sink down into a sitting position with his back against the door. The shakes were from hunger, not fear, but it was doing a fine job of scrambling his brain.

"Okay," he whispered, and reached into his inner pocket to take out Plagg. "We're in trouble."

Plagg hung limply in his hands, eyes half closed. "Leave me alone to die."

"You're no help at all," Adrien grumbled. He shook his head to clear it and tried to gather his thoughts. "Okay so – let's assume that all the doors are like that, and we're locked in here. If I can just get back to the locker room, then I can grab my bag and get you some food." Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and he fell silent and watched over his shoulder through the window until they had passed. "Looks like they're spreading out. Maybe I can sneak past them."

"Hurry," Plagg groaned. "I don't know... how much longer... I can last..."

"Oh, stop it." Adrien rolled his eyes and tucked the kwami back into his pocket. "Just keep quiet, okay? I can't afford to get caught." Peering through the glass window into the hallway, he checked that the coast was clear before he left his hiding place.

There were students in the hallway, not running but patrolling, forcing Adrien to take a more circuitous route back to the courtyard. He was forced to duck and hide, backtrack, and detour until his head spun, just to avoid being spotted or give them the slip whenever his footsteps gave him away. His blood ran cold when he spotted Ivan and caught a glimpse of his face; the whites of his classmate's eyes had turned deep red. They were all like that. He ducked back around a corner, watching and wondering what the red eyes meant, when Ivan bumped another student. It was nothing; Ivan barely brushed by him. But the second he did, the other boy turned and took a swing at him. It devolved into a brief scuffle until Ivan's superior size and strength sent the other student scrambling away, spitting an insult over his shoulder.

_And that must be War's doing._

Adrien hurried on.

He had almost made it back to the courtyard when a glimpse of red and black sent him running to hide again. The nearest place was the girl's bathroom, and he slipped in without hesitation. Picking a stall at random, he ducked in, closed the door without locking it, and clambered up on the toilet seat so that his feet wouldn't show below the door. There he crouched, feeling like an idiot, and tried not to chew on his own tongue when he heard the bathroom door open.

Red and black should have been comforting colors to him, but not when they were attached to those two voices. Hawkmoth's magic distorted them ever so slightly, but he was willing to bet these were the two that Chloe had taunted.

"What are we doing in here?" That was Famine. Adrien shifted his weight on his uncomfortable perch, trying not to slip. The last thing he needed was to fall into the toilet.

"Just checking," said War. "We've cleared the ground floor, and my power isn't long-range like yours, so I just want to be thorough."

"Makes sense. I think your little soldiers are already heading to the upper floors." She chuckled. "Their hunger makes them fiercer."

"I want to recruit everyone in this school by the time Ladybug and Chat Noir show up," War said grimly. In his stall, Adrien stilled and listened. "I'd rather not take any chances."

"Two against two," Famine pointed out. "Plus your army. And, if you get close enough, you could... 'recruit' one of them."

"I like the way you think. I wonder if the kitty cat likes to be petted?"

His voice lilted with amusement, and Adrien could _hear_ the smirk on his face. The words dug deep like claws, and it took all of his self control not to growl out loud as every fiber of his being screamed in protest.

"It's been done," Famine pointed out. "Heartbreaker, the Puppeteer..."

"Please." War's voice dripped with scorn. "One was a whining romantic wannabe, and the other was a toddler. Besides..." The smirk curled in his voice again. "Third time's the charm."

Adrien clenched his teeth and clamped his hand over his mouth, biting back an angry hiss. _Never, never, never again, not my Lady, I'll hand over my Miraculous before I let you use me like that-_

The door creaked again, and their voices faded. Adrien stayed where he was, breathing in and out through his nose until the anger and hurt finally passed. Stiffly he climbed down to the floor and crept out of the bathroom again. He had to focus. He had a plan. He just had to stick to his plan, and... and stay away from War.

The two akuma were gone, probably upstairs to continue spreading their curses. Finally Adrien made it out to the courtyard, only to grit his teeth and stay back out of sight. Of course War's "soldiers" would be patrolling the courtyard. Why had he expected any different?

Adrien positioned himself at the very end of the hallway, just out of their line of sight, and peeked out. He counted seven of them, and spotted Alix among them. Wringing his hands, he braced himself and looked again, for as long as he dared.

He was about to duck back once more when something caught his eye across the courtyard. There was movement at another hallway entrance, quick and small enough for him to question whether or not he had actually seen it. He looked again, swallowing against the tightness of fear in his throat.

There it was again – someone was standing at the end of that other hallway, just like he was, and peeking out for a few seconds at a time.

Adrien narrowed his eyes, straining to see, before whoever it was inched out into view. Even from the distance he could see her, from her black pigtails to the whites of her wide eyes.

 _Marinette_ _._

What was she doing? If she stepped out any further, she was going to get caught for sure; the fact that the whites of her eyes were still white was enough proof that she hadn't been caught already.

Adrien ducked back when Alix turned her head, counted to three, and peeked out again. Marinette was still edging out into the open, and she kept tossing looks over her shoulder. There was someone coming up behind her, he realized. She was in trouble on both sides.

Frantically he cast about for options, and his eyes fell upon an abandoned janitor's cart a few meters away. Part of him wondered if the janitor had simply wandered off, or if War had gotten to them too. He didn't want to think about it, so he rushed to it and grabbed the heaviest-looking object on it. A pushbroom. Terrible balance, but he could work with it. To his relief, the head came off of the handle with a few twists, leaving him with a makeshift staff.

Judging by the lack of shouting, Marinette hadn't been caught yet, but it was only a matter of time before someone spotted her. Before he had the chance to change his mind, Adrien gave the cart a solid kick and sent it rolling out into the courtyard.

"What was that?" someone called out. "Hey! Who's there?"

Adrien was already off and running for cover, wincing at the noise of his own footsteps.

"There's someone in that hallway! Don't just stand there, go get them!"

From the sound of it, most if not all of the students in the courtyard were after him now. Adrien gripped his broom handle and hoped fervently that it was enough of a chance for Marinette to get somewhere safe.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Marinette was ready to have three heart attacks in a row when, from a hallway across the courtyard, the janitor's cart rolled out into the open. But instead of bringing more trouble, it brought unexpected help; almost everyone in the courtyard noticed it rolling out, too. Like a pack of wolves, they went to the other hallway to investigate, leaving Marinette with a clear path to the locker room.

She wasted no time. There were a few places that offered cover in the courtyard, which was a good thing for her when two of the students stayed to keep watch. It was so much easier to hide from their view. By the time the small group that had nearly flanked her in the hallway emerged into the open area, Marinette was already at the locker room door and slipping inside. If anyone saw her, she didn't pause to wonder about it.

" _Yes,_ " she whisper-shouted once she was inside. Already her sour stomach was feeling a little better, if only because of the anticipation of food. Slipping a little in her socks, she found her way to her locker and fumbled it open with shaking fingers. "Okay, where are they, where are they..." A few of her things spilled out onto the floor, but neatness was the last thing on her mind. After a moment more of frantic rummaging, her hand closed on an unopened package of cookies.

Relief flooded her, bringing out a giddy laugh. "Ha! Tikki, we're in business!" With shaking hands, she tore the wrapper open.

Dust spilled out, onto her hands and the floor. Marinette yelped in shock, dropping the packet. The rest of its contents spilled out on its way down, until the empty wrapper fluttered to her feet. There had been nothing inside but dry, inedible dust.

"No, no, _no_." Marinette stepped back, wiping her hands on her pant leg. "No, how could this happen? I just bought these yesterday, I never even opened them!"

"Famine," Tikki whispered from her purse. "It must have been Famine. Marinette, she doesn't just create hunger – she destroys food, too."

Outside, someone shouted at the top of their lungs. Marinette jumped, whipping around to stare at the closed door with wide eyes. More shouting following, followed by the sound of something large and cumbersome crashing. From the sound of it, there was a fight in the courtyard again.

"We need to get out of here," Marinette whispered.

"Whatever is out there, it sounds like War's people are distracted," Tikki pointed out. "If we want to get out, now may be the time."

"Right." Marinette shook herself, wiping her eyes surreptitiously with the back of her hand. "This place is a rat trap. We need somewhere else to... to regroup, and think of a new plan."

"Look before you leap, Marinette," Tikki reminded her. "And watch out for War."

Marinette grabbed her water bottle and shook it, and was rewarded by a swish of water. Tucking it under her arm, she left the mess of her locker and crossed the room. Bracing herself at the door, she nodded. "All right. Here we go."

* * *

Adrien hadn't counted on running into more of War's "recruits" in the hallways. But he did, and they slowed him down enough for the pack from the courtyard to catch up with him.

The first to grab him was Max. It was a shock to see his normally placid classmate with bloodshot eyes and a snarl on his face, and Adrien barely got his makeshift staff up in time to block a kick from another student. He tried to pull away, but Max's grip was vicelike. When Adrien jabbed at him halfheartedly with the broom handle, reluctant to hurt him, Max simply punched him in the gut with his free hand for his troubles.

"Oh," Adrien grunted, clenching his teeth. "Okay. That's how it is then." A harder jab to the stomach made Max let go. He whirled the broom handle, forcing the others back to avoid getting whacked, eyes darting as he sought out an opening for escape. Ivan lunged closer, arms outstretched, and in a half-second Adrien saw how the others gave the hulking boy a wide berth. Thrusting the staff at those closest to his path of escape, he darted forward and ducked under Ivan's arm.

He misjudged it; Ivan moved with a surprising speed, pivoted, and grabbed Adrien from behind, hooking his arms under Adrien's and forcing them back until Adrien's shoulders screamed in protest. With a yell, Adrien fought the hold, but there was little use. Someone's fist flew at him, catching him full in the mouth, and he nearly dropped his weapon. He stumbled when Ivan began dragging him back toward the courtyard.

With his arms trapped, he couldn't bring his staff into play. So instead, Adrien threw his weight fully onto Ivan's arms. His classmate could take it without breaking a sweat, but letting Ivan carry him left Adrien free to kick with his full weight at anyone who came at him.

He had been half-dragged, half-carried back to the mouth of the hallway when Ivan's right arm shifted. His hand moved to block Adrien's eyes, maybe in an effort to keep him from kicking as accurately. It left Adrien blind but also partially freed up his own right arm, enough to swing his staff backward. It connected, though there wasn't enough momentum behind it to make a difference. But that was all right, because Ivan's hand was still on Adrien's face.

"Sorry," Adrien muttered to his classmate, then twisted his head upward and sank his teeth into Ivan's wrist.

Ivan yelled with pain, and Adrien bit harder. A moment later Ivan released his arms, only to grab a handful of his shirt before Adrien could slip away and escape. Adrien twisted, one hand moving instinctively to cover Plagg's pocket. His feet left the ground, and Ivan hurled him back out into the open courtyard.

For a few disorienting seconds he had no real idea where the ground was, until his back hit the janitor's cart from earlier. With a crash he knocked it over, sending cleaning supplies scattering across the floor. He lay awkwardly on top of the overturned cart, still gripping the broom handle, dazed and winded. The pack was running to catch him again, with Alix speeding to the front. She was the first to reach him. On instinct he squeezed his eyes shut and flinched, and his classmate's foot caught him in a glancing blow to the eye instead of breaking his nose.

The kick brought him around like a slap to the face, and he heaved himself upright using the staff as leverage. He was on his feet when Alix lunged again, and he shoved the end of it between her feet, tripping her neatly. She hit the ground cursing furiously, and he sprang back and faced the crowd, swinging the staff in a wide arc to keep them back. It was a mistake; Ivan grabbed the end of it and jerked it back, yanking him forward into their reach.

Someone's hand closed on his arm, pulled him back, and steadied him once he was out of their reach again. Adrien gave the staff a quick twist, forcing Ivan's hand into a painful angle until he let go. The grip on his arm tightened, and he was pulled into a flat-out run. He turned to follow, looked to the side, recognized his rescuer, and picked up speed to keep pace with her.

Something hit the ground behind them with a loud clack. Adrien looked over his shoulder just in time to see a plastic water bottle go rolling right into Ivan's path. He stepped on it, and the bottle rolled his foot right out from under him. Ivan went down in a heap.

He'd been at the front of the pack, Adrien noted. He'd gone down so suddenly that everyone who was behind him ended up tripping over either him, or the ones that had tripped over him.

“Nice aim,” he remarked.

Beside him, Marinette could only manage a high-pitched “Mm-hm,” as they sprinted into the hallway she had come out of.

They could only flee so far before they ran out of hallway. Marinette let go of his arm, and her pace slowed as she looked around uncertainly for an escape. All the classrooms they passed were empty, and many of them were dark. “The side exit-” she said.

Adrien shook his head. “Won't work, I tried it. We need to hide before they catch up – come on.” With his hand on her shoulder, he led her to one of the empty, unlit classrooms.

“Is it locked?”

Adrien tried it, and found that it was. “Not for long.” He'd left his card loose in his pocket; fishing it out, he slid it into the crack between door and doorjamb and teased the lock loose. He could hear the others catching up by the time he opened it, let Marinette in, and slipped in behind her. He locked it behind them, just in time for the pack to go running by. Instinctively Adrien pressed himself flat against the door and hoped they wouldn't spot him through the glass. Marinette had moved clear already, and they stood in tense, breathless silence as their shouting schoolmates passed them by.

When it was quiet, Adrien moved away from the door and leaned the broom handle against the wall to free his tired hands. The adrenaline rush that had carried him through the entire fight was finally ebbing, letting him feel pain again – his stomach ached from hunger and Max's punch, his shoulders were sore from being pinned back, and getting thrown into the janitor's cart had not done him any favors. His eye was beginning to smart where Alix had kicked him, and his lip stung. It was broad daylight outside, enough to see the blood on the back of his hand when he gingerly wiped his sore mouth. Whoever had punched him when he'd been trapped in Ivan's grip had split his lip.

With a jolt, he remembered Marinette. “Th-thanks for that,” he said, a little lamely. “That was good thinking, with the water bottle.”

Marinette blinked at him, her face still red from running. “J-just lucky,” she murmured. “Was... um...” She wrung her hands at her sides, and she met his eyes only briefly. “Was that you? I mean, the janitor's cart. It rolled out, right when I was about to get caught.”

“Oh, uh... yeah.” His eye really did hurt where Alix had kicked him. Was it going to swell up and bruise? He hoped not – Father might get upset if a messed-up face kept him from doing shoots for a while. There was only so much that makeup and Photoshop could fix.

“Are you all right?” he asked. He barely heard her come closer, and a glance downward told him why. She was in her socks. “Did you lose your shoes?”

“Yes. No. I mean-” Marinette fidgeted. “I'm all right. And I didn't lose my shoes, I took them off so I'd make less noise when I run.” She hesitated. “Thank you, too. For helping me.”

He smiled, trying not to wince when it pulled at his split lip. “I guess that makes us even.”

Her eyes widened, and her hand went to her mouth. "Oh my god, your face-"

"It's fine," he said automatically, but she was already stepping closer.

"Adrien, you're _bleeding_ -" Her hand was at her purse, rummaging briefly to pull out a handkerchief, and she moved forward like she was ready to wipe away the blood herself. At the last moment she seemed to stop herself, and simply pressed the clean cloth into his hand instead. That done, she stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest. "It would, um... probably be better with water, but I... kind of threw away my water bottle."

"It's fine. Thanks." It was a nice handkerchief, and the last thing he wanted to do was bleed all over it, but who was he to turn down a favor? As he pressed it gently to the cut on his lip, he wished that he were meeting her as Chat Noir instead. Maybe if he was Chat Noir, she wouldn't look so terribly uncomfortable. At the very least he'd be able to comment on receiving a token of a princess's favor. Maybe it would make her laugh, or roll her eyes, or do anything besides stand there with her shoulders drawn up and her eyes to the floor. She lifted her hand to draw a lock of hair behind her ear, and Adrien caught sight of something he hadn't noticed before.

As Marinette lowered her hand, he gently caught her wrist. She started a little, then shook her head at his muttered apology and let him turn her arm over. Finger-shaped bruises stood out on her skin, darkening to purple.

He winced in sympathy. "That looks bad."

"Not as bad as yours." She paused, cringing a little. "I mean, I'm not saying you look bad, you look _fine –_ well, not _fine_ , but I mean... you're... um. Worse off. Than me."

Adrien smiled at her again, hoping it was comforting. "I'll live." A twinge in his stomach made him wince again, and he shot a glance at the door. "Didn't make it to the locker room, though. I was hoping to grab some food out of my bag."

"It wouldn't work." Marinette's face fell. "I had the same idea. I-I managed to slip in while they were... distracted..." She shot a guilty look at him. "But when I got there, it had turned into dust. All my snacks were gone. Probably Famine's fault."

Adrien's heart sank, and he closed his eyes and tried not to slump. "Probably, yeah. Of course she would. That's just... typical." He felt Plagg shift inside his shirt pocket, and silently thanked his kwami for not voicing his displeasure out loud.

At the same time, he burned with frustrated. Without his powers he may as well be useless, especially once Ladybug showed up to take care of this. He didn't want to stand by while she fought this alone, he wanted to transform and _fight_. Restlessness drove him to pace, still dabbing absently at the cut on his lip. Like it or not, he was stuck. All he could do now was take what he had and run with it. Besides, he reminded himself - it could always be worse. At least he wasn't alone. If he'd learned one thing from Nathanael's stint as the Evillustrator, it was that Marinette was good to have around in a tight spot.

Of course, that could be a mixed blessing. If he did manage to find something for Plagg, than being alone was exactly what he wanted.

"Um, well, either way..." Marinette coughed as if clearing her throat, and tried again in a clearer voice. "It looks like we're stuck. And, if we want to get out of this, then we need to find a way out of here. It's either that, or wait around for Chat Noir to show up."

He blinked. "Why Chat Noir in particular?"

"O-oh, uh, well... I've noticed he's the first to show up a lot," Marinette stammered. "I mean, not always, but... a lot."

Adrien smiled ruefully. "True. It's probably better not to count on him in this case, though."

She blinked at him, confused. "Why do you say that?"

_Because I'm him, and until I find some cheese I'm kind of screwed._ Adrien mentally cursed his slip and scrambled for an excuse. "Well, this probably isn't something he could handle on his own, you know?” he pointed out. “We're way better off if Ladybug shows up first."

He expected her to accept his answer and move on. Most people did; everyone knew that Ladybug was the leader, Ladybug was the face of Paris's hero duo. They were a team, but it was a choice and not a necessity. If Ladybug needed to handle a problem on her own, then she could.

Him, not so much.

What he did not expect was the edge in her voice when she answered, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Adrien looked at her, slightly startled. Marinette was looking back at him, steadily for once, and bridling at him. Had he said something to upset her? Nervously he grasped for a good explanation. "I mean, if Chat Noir shows up it'll probably just be to hold them off until Ladybug shows up, because, well that's what he usually does. But in this case he'd be up against two akuma at the same time, and I don't think he'd be able to pull it off, you know?" In his mind, the memory of Famine and War's discussion wormed its way back to the forefront, and he suppressed a shudder. "Besides, it might just make things worse – if War touches him, he'd just end up brainwashed. Again. I mean it's happened twice already, so who's to say it... won't happen again?"

"It _won't_." Adrien started again at the arch tone in Marinette's voice. "And even if it did, it's not like that was his fault."

Adrien shrugged, feeling hopelessly trapped. "I-I didn't mean anything by it, it's just... Chat Noir needs Ladybug to come help him, and the reverse isn't... really... true." His voice trailed off. Marinette was still looking at him, and he knew he wasn't mistaking the indignation on her face.

* * *

Marinette could barely believe her ears. "Th-that's not – of  _course_ the reverse is true!" Maybe it was the leftover fear from so many near-misses since the attack started, maybe it was hunger making her grumpy, maybe she was on edge because she was trapped in a locked classroom with her crush. Whatever it was, her fraying self-control snapped, and she had to fight to keep her voice down. "You don't really think that, do you?"

"Well, um..." Adrien gaped at her, speechless, but for once Marinette wasn't flustered into silence.

"Chat Noir _is_ important," she went on, incensed. "Ladybug's really great, but she's not some – some perfect, unbeatable person. She needs help sometimes – I mean a _lot_ of times – and she can't do everything by herself. And even if she could, can you even imagine how lonely that would be?" She paused, catching her breath. "He does whatever she can't do, and he's her friend. They're a team, period. There's no – there's no ifs, ands, or buts. Everybody... everybody acts like he's just extra, but he's not. He's important."

The rush of words finally petered out, leaving her slightly breathless and dazed. Almost immediately Marinette felt her face heat with embarrassment. Adrien was staring at her, wide-eyed and speechless. "Uh."

Oh no. Oh _no_ she'd just lost her temper at Adrien Agreste. She'd gone and scolded him, after he'd just helped her out of trouble and kept her from getting caught. Could this day possibly get any worse? Marinette glanced down at the floor, wishing it would open like a mouth beneath her feet and swallow her up. "I'm sorry." The apology slipped out. "I-I didn't mean to snap or anything, I just..."

"N-no, it's fine." He looked shamefaced, and she had mixed feelings about that. Because on the one hand, making Adrien feel bad was the last thing she wanted to do, and on the other hand, she wouldn't tolerate anyone saying things like that about Chat Noir. "I just... didn't realize you felt so strongly about that."

"I do," she said quietly. "I just... sometimes I hear stuff like that, and it just... rubs me the wrong way."

"Why?"

_Because he's my best friend and I won't let anyone talk that way about him._ "Because... um..." Inspiration struck. "Well, I've met him twice, and he saved me both times." Two separate akuma – the Evillustrator and the Gamer. "I mean, not just stopping the akuma. He saved _me_ , personally. So... yeah." Nervously she searched his face, hoping he would buy that.

There was something in his eyes that she couldn't read. It was partly surprise, and partly... something else. Something that tugged at her memory in a way she couldn't quite decipher. Before she could study it further, it was gone.

Maybe she wasn't quite being truthful. Chat Noir had only saved her from the Evillustrator because she'd arranged the situation herself, and she had... well, she'd helped him save her, in any case. But what Adrien didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and the multitude of times Chat Noir saved her as Ladybug was more than enough to make up for it.

(He'd saved her from Heartbreaker. He'd taken an arrow meant for her, and had spent the rest of the battle trying to destroy her, and when the Puppeteer sprang up he'd been so _scared_ , he'd hid it behind jokes and smiles but he'd practically begged her to keep his doll from falling into Manon's hands, and she hadn't been able to do it, she'd only saved herself.)

She heard Adrien's voice, dimly amid the noise of her heartbeat in her ears.. "Right, um. I heard about that. Sorry, that was... rude of me."

"It's fine." Marinette shook herself. She'd just have to make sure War didn't get anywhere near Chat. And to do that, she needed to get out of here and find a way to transform. Filled with newfound determination, she summoned up the nerve to meet Adrien's eyes again. "Besides, no matter who shows up first, it doesn't change the fact that we're still stuck right now. And I don't want to just wait around to be saved, do you?"

"Of course not," he said. His lip had stopped bleeding, and now he stood fiddling with the handkerchief she'd lent him.

"Okay then." She took a deep breath and let it out again. She could do this. She'd wanted to be on a team with Adrien before, hadn't she? Well, now was her chance. "I guess... that means we'd better work together."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

Marinette blinked in confusion. "What? Why?"

"Oh, uh, nothing. Never mind, it's not important." Adrien ran his hand through his hair – and wow, that eye did not look good. It struck her that he'd gotten it while distracting the others away from her.

A twinge of guilt hit her in her already pained stomach. She hadn't found any food for Tikki in the locker room like she'd wanted to – he'd gotten hurt for nothing. Ashamed, Marinette looked away. "So, our best bet is to get out of here," she said, eager to shift her thoughts away from it. "We're outnumbered in here, and if we get out then we can, um, get word out. But all the doors are locked, and I'm betting it's the same for the windows."

"Well, not locked," Adrien said hesitantly. "I tried a door earlier, and it wasn't locked – the handle turned, and I could push it a little. It's more like there's something blocking it from the outside. Sort of like that time at the hotel, with your uncle. Only no caramel.”

Marinette frowned. This was news to her – at this point, any information was good information. “Hey... the classroom windows open inward, don't they?”

They exchanged glances, and on unspoken agreement they moved to check. For a few seconds it appeared to be stuck fast, but it was more from lack of use than War's siege magic. The hinges were stiff, and a buildup of grime gummed up the window frame, but between the two of them, they managed to get it unstuck and swing the glass panel inward.

“What the-” Marinette breathed. Outside of the now open window, the air shimmered oddly. It looked a little like a haze of heat, only with a slight tinge of faded red. She could still see outside, but it looked blurry and wobbly, as if she was staring through translucent red liquid. “All right,” she said faintly. “Safe to say that's what's keeping us in. ...Whatever it is.”

“Safe bet.” Adrien reached toward it.

Marinette's hand shot out almost automatically, catching him by the wrist. “What are you doing?”

“I just want to see how solid it is,” Adrien explained.

“You don't touch glowing red force fields with your bare hands, Adrien!”

“Sorry, sorry.” Adrien jogged back to retrieve the staff he'd left leaning against the wall. Returning, he gave the blurry image an experimental poke. The wood clacked audibly against it. “Definitely solid,” Adrien remarked. “Hard, too. It feels glass, or stone.”

“A wall,” Marinette murmured, half to herself. “Before, War said something about this being a siege – no one gets in or out.”

“Ms. Bustier was lecturing about this today, wasn't she?” Adrien said, pulling his staff back to lean against his shoulder. “Castle sieges, defensive walls, that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, she called them – oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Marinette sighed, massaging her forehead against the threat of a headache.

“What?”

She didn't want to say it. “The window... has a curtain wall,” Marinette muttered. She regretted the words almost the moment they were out of her mouth.

A moment of silence passed, and then Adrien stifled a snicker.

Well, that was a plus. If nothing else, at least she'd managed to make Adrien laugh.

“So, if this, um, _wall_ is around the whole building,” she went on, eager to shift the subject past the awful pun. “...then are we even sure there is a way out?”

“We can't really be sure of anything,” Adrien answered. “Though...” His voice trailed off, and his eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

“What?”

“Well, I overheard the akuma talking together earlier,” Adrien said. “They're not just turning people for fun – War said he was trying to turn everybody to their side by the time Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up.”

Marinette suppressed a shudder. “O-okay, um... not surprising, I guess. They're always after those...” She pretended to hem and haw over a forgotten word. “Those magic things they have, right? They'll never get them if Ladybug and Chat Noir can't get anywhere near them.”

“Right!” Adrien stepped away from the window to pace again. “If they're trying to lure out Ladybug and Chat Noir, then they must be leaving some way open.”

“If the doors and windows are blocked, then...” Marinette chewed her lip. “Oh! They can jump and climb walls, Ladybug uses that yo-yo to swing around, and Chat Noir uses his staff to get to high places. If I were them, I'd try to get in from the top.”

Adrien faced her, blinking in realization. “...Last I heard, defensive walls don't cover the roof, do they?”

“So we go up...” Marinette cast her eyes up to the ceiling, frowning. “Hm... if that's the way they want Ladybug and Chat Noir to use to get in, then they'll be watching rooftop entrances and high windows. It'll be that much harder to get past them. If I was War, that's where I'd keep most of my... soldiers. Not to mention we'd have to get past the guards in the courtyard again, too.”

“Do we have a choice?” Adrien pointed out grimly.

Marinette wracked her brain. “Um...” Options, options, did they have any options? She went to the window, frowning out past the shimmering haze of the force field. They were under siege, there was an impenetrable wall around them, and the only way past it was... “Oh,” she whispered. “We _might_.”

“What's your idea?”

“That lecture on sieges.” Marinette met his eyes. “About walls – the only past them was over, or _under_.”

Adrien gaped. “Under?”

She pointed outside. “Out there, see?” Beyond the force field was what appeared to be an unassuming cement block, barely big enough to be considered a building. “Isn't that a maintenance shed?”

Leaning closer to the force field, Adrien cupped his hands around his eyes and squinted. “Should be...” He looked at her again, realization dawning. “Do you think there might be a way to get from the school building to the shed? Underground?”

“It's possible.” Marinette frowned. “But I'm not sure, and I wouldn't know how to find it if there is.”

“Maintenance area would be a good start,” Adrien said. “Remember when Mylene turned into a monster? There are a lot of places to hide down there, and I bet we could find some maps or blueprints that could help us figure this out.”

“Good idea.” Marinette took a deep breath and let it out. Distractions crowded around her – hunger pangs, restlessness, frustration with her inability to transform, and more. Even just talking to Adrien threatened to bring back the butterflies in her stomach. But in spite of this, the beginnings of a solid plan were forming in her head.

She could get through this. _They_ could get through this. It could always be worse; she could be doing this on her own. Not that she couldn't, but it was nice not to be alone. It was nice to have someone to talk to, especially with Tikki weak and quiet from hunger. And this way, she could save at least one person from the akuma's trap before she came back with her powers.

Once more her eyes fell on Adrien's battered face – the darkening bruise under his eye, the dried blood around his split lip – and her mouth twisted when the guilt hit her again. She was going to get him out of here, whether she did it as Marinette or as Ladybug.

“We'll have to go through the courtyard to get there,” she said at length.

Adrien swung his broom handle up to rest across his shoulders, and Marinette couldn't ignore the heart flutter she felt when he smiled at her. “We can do it. I know we can. You're one of the smartest people I know – if anyone can figure this out, it's you.”

Marinette could only gape at him for all of two seconds, before hurrying past him to the door to hide her furiously blushing face.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I hurt these children?

When they ventured back out into the hallway, Marinette was quietly trembling. She was growing light-headed, which told her that the hunger was getting to her. With a wry twitch of her mouth, she resolved not to get frustrated if ever Tikki's hunger kept her from transforming in the future. At the moment Marinette could just barely wrap her mind around the thought of running and dodging, much less jumping into a pair of earrings and using magic.

Adrien must have noticed, because he tucked the broom handle under his arm and reached out to rest his freehand on her shoulder. He meant it as a calming gesture, and it might have worked, given a little more time. But Marinette was on edge, and she jumped at the unexpected touch, and Adrien took his hand away with an apologetic look.

_It's okay,_ she wanted to say. _Thank you for that._ But they were already out and on the move, and all she could manage was a wavering smile.

She'd put her shoes back on for this. Stealth was all very well, but since their path would take them straight through the courtyard, it was better to be able to run without slipping, or stepping on something painful. They would just have to be extra careful.

Side by side, they stole silently down the hallway. Adrien focused his attention on the path in front of them, while Marinette kept an eye on their backs.

Further down the hallway behind them, she spotted a flicker of moving shadows on the floor just around the bend. She saw it before she heard them – clearly, they weren't the only ones using stealth. War's victims weren't just mindlessly violent, she realized. There was strategy to what they were doing, too. It made sense; tactics were just another aspect of war itself.

Wordlessly she pressed her hand to Adrien's shoulder. There was no speech necessary; one look at her face, and Adrien was picking up the pace. A maintenance closet offered them temporary shelter. They slipped inside and waited, neither of them daring to breathe deeper than was absolutely necessary. A minute passed in silence, and Marinette relaxed, slightly embarrassed. She must have imagined the movement. She opened her mouth to apologize for her jumpiness, but before she could make a sound, his hand found her wrist in the dark and gave it an urgent squeeze to silence her. Moments later, she heard voices.

“-and hurry up. War wants us all on the second floor for when Ladybug and Chat Noir show up. That's when the _real_ fight will start.”

“What about the two that got away? We still haven't found them.”

“No time.” Marinette blinked when she recognized Alya – just barely. There was a hardness to her tone that sounded horribly out of place in her friend's voice. “If they're smart they'll keep hiding.”

“Besides,” the first speaker broke in with a scornful laugh. “You can't get anywhere important without going through the courtyard, and War's smart enough to leave sentries there. They're no threat.”

Marinette shut her eyes as the voices and footsteps moved past. Once silence reigned again, they ventured back out into the hallway. Adrien was still holding her wrist, until he glanced over as if just remembering. Sheepishly he let go, and Marinette buried her disappointment. She had more important things to think about than Adrien almost-not-quite holding her hand.

_No threat, huh?_ Marinette glared in the direction that their brainwashed classmates had taken. If War's bully-boys thought they could run her off and call it a day, then they were in for a surprise. It was still a lucky break for her – they would never have blown her off like that had they known she was Ladybug. They would have swarmed her first chance they got.

It wasn't until she noticed the odd look on Adrien's face that she realized she was smiling. Not friendly-smiling, either; the look on her face could probably be classified as a smirk. Mentally she shook herself again, and forced her face back into a neutral expression. Embarrassed, she ignored the warmth in her face and jerked her head in a silent “let's go” gesture. Adrien nodded, and she turned her attention to their rear once more as she followed him to the courtyard entrance.

It's difficult for both of them to peer out into the courtyard while staying hidden, so they took turns before stepping back to confer.

“I counted five.” Adrien's voice barely reached her ears. “Couldn't recognize all of them, though.”

He was speaking close to her ear, to make sure she could hear him. Marinette clenched her fists, forcing herself not to shiver. “Alya's out there,” she managed to say. “Adrien, she's by the _door_.”

“Yeah.” The stark sympathy in his eyes forced her to look away for a moment. When she looked back she found him watching her solemnly with wide eyes – or at least one wide eye and one slightly swollen one. “So. There's cover, but not much. Four by the stairs, and...” He stepped away to sneak a second look, then came back to her side. “Looks like Alya's not moving from that door. However we play this, they'll spot us at the end when we have to get past her. We'll have to move fast.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Marinette breathed. Nervousness made her tongue looser. “You know, I... kind of wish Chat Noir was here.” That wasn't quite true; there was no “kind of” about it. She remembered her strange date with the akuma-corrupted Nathanael, and the cool certainty that had filled her at the sight of her partner following closely from the rooftops. At the moment, she would have given anything just for a glimpse of him on his way.

Adrien's mouth twitched in an almost-smile, but it dropped to a frown again. “Something must be wrong,” he murmured. “How long has it been? Shouldn't she – shouldn't they be here by now?”

Guilt pricked at her. “They locked the school off,” she pointed out softly. “Outside it's been quiet. Maybe she hasn't heard.” _Or maybe she's trapped inside like in idiot._

“Then we'll just have to get the word out,” Adrien said.

“We can make it,” Marinette told him.

“I think at least one of us has a good chance,” Adrien said absently. It was hard to tell when he was whispering so softly, but he seemed to be talking half to himself.

“Adrien.” Her throat felt tight, and the words did not come out easily. “Adrien, we're both getting out.”

“Right, right. I know. Just...” He caught his lip between his teeth, glancing at the courtyard entrance again. “Marinette, you know Ladybug, don't you?”

Her breath caught in her throat, as it always did when anyone suggested there was a connection between her and her other self. Only self preservation and the fear of discovery kept her from stuttering and flailing. “Um.”

“I-I mean, I've heard rumors, but... it's true, isn't it? You know her at least... somewhat personally?”

Not trusting herself to speak, Marinette could only nod.

“That's good. I'm glad.” Adrien gave her a reassuring smile. “Don't worry, I'm the last person who's – I mean I won't ask questions. Just, whatever happens... you can get word to her, right?”

Marinette gaped at him, dumbstruck, and had to look away again before she said or did something embarrassing. Was he suggesting what she thought he was suggesting? She would have expected that kind of foolishness from Chat Noir, but from Adrien?

Her chest hurt. “Yes,” she finally managed to say. “Let's just go.” She avoided looking at him for fear of giving away... something. Her feelings, her identity, any of the secrets of her heart. So she pushed to the front, peered out into the courtyard, and waited for the first chance to slip out when all five heads were turned.

Adrien kept close to her back. The staircases weren't solid enough to offer the kind of cover Marinette would have liked, but she made do. They could hide from passing glances; as long as none of their classmates looked too carefully, they could slip by.

(She wondered idly if Adrien would catch hold of her shoulder, or her wrist, or even her hand, to make sure they stayed close. But he didn't. He kept close, sometimes close enough to press his shoulder to her, but he kept his hands to himself. Pity, she thought, and mentally kicked herself for her silliness.)

By luck and a prayer, they made it halfway across the courtyard undetected. Ducking behind benches and hurrying from hiding place to hiding place kept them safe. The door to the maintenance areas was on the same side of the building as the hallway they had come from. With Alya standing in front of it, that meant that, if they stayed on this side and she didn't sweep the area too much, they might be able to come up from just outside her peripherals. They could sneak up behind her, give her a shove in the back to get her off balance, and be through the door and safe before the others had time to stop them.

The plan was almost fully formed in her mind when their luck ran out.

“Hey! Stop them!” A student that Marinette didn't know called out in a voice like a baying dog, and the thoughts fled from her mind. She didn't even need Adrien's urging to throw caution to the wind in exchange for speed, but he did anyway.

“ _Run_.”

She ran.

Later she would choke on her own guilt for it, but she lost track of Adrien the moment she took off. It was only a few seconds that she ran without thinking of him, but in a fight, or in a chase, a few seconds is plenty of time.

She almost made it. Her mad dash almost carried her clear of her schoolmates, but she made the mistake of looking at Alya. Her best friend was all that stood between her and their goal, and Alya was smiling. Alya's smiles were nice – big, wide, friendly grins that lit her up all the way to her eyes, that made you smile back because what else could you do in the face of a grin like that?

This was not a nice smile, and Alya's eyes, rather than lighting up bright and warm, were surrounded with blood-red.

Marinette stumbled mid-stride, and two of the others caught up and grabbed her as Alya strode forward into the fight.

She fought. Thrashing in their grip – Alix at one arm, and a boy she didn't know at her other – she struck out almost blindly for whatever she could reach. Only now did she crane her neck for a glimpse of Adrien. He wasn't far – the remaining two students, Max and an older boy, didn't have a hold of him the way her captors did, but they were still harrying him and keeping him from escaping. He dodged their attempts to grab him, swinging his broom handle to keep them from coming close.

Alya walked past her and headed straight for them.

With a yell, Marinette flung herself to the side, ramming Alix with her body. While the other girl was off balance, she aimed a kick at the boy's knee. He stumbled, mouth open with a choked cry of pain, and she took advantage of their distraction to throw herself at Alya. Marinette caught her friend in a headlock for all of two seconds before Alya's elbow snapped back, slamming into her face. Half-stunned, Marinette let go and stumbled back. The boy grabbed her again.

_Oh no, not that again,_ she thought fiercely. She squirmed like a trapped cat, dug her nails into one of the hands holding her, and twisted free again. Her cheek smarted mightily, but she forced herself to focus. Adrien had tripped the older boy and sent him tumbling to the floor. Marinette looked just in time to see him launch himself to freedom using the downed student as a springboard, just as Alya charged forward.

“Adrien, look out!” Her warning came a split second too late. Alya caught the end of the broom handle and yanked him off balance. Landing clumsily, he released the broom handle to run, only to stumble again when the boy he'd tripped grabbed his foot.

Marinette darted forward before either of her opponents could grab her. Max, still on his feet, was making to lunge at him again. Without thinking, Marinette grabbed Alya by fistfuls of her shirt, murmured a quiet apology, and flung her straight into their classmate. Yelling with frustration, they went down in a tangle of limbs and broom handle. Reaching Adrien's side, Marinette stomped on the wrist of the boy holding his ankle until he let go, at which point she shoved Adrien in the direction of the door.

Her own opponents caught up as she followed. The boy caught hold of her arm and yanked her back viciously, drawing her within Alix's reach. Instead of grabbing her, Alix grabbed her purse and dragged at it. Marinette yelped when the strap bit into her shoulder. On instinct she almost slipped it off, before she remembered with a jolt that Tikki was inside. If Alix dragged any harder, she was either going to pull Marinette back into their clutches or break the strap, and Marinette wasn't sure she could retrieve it without becoming even more hopelessly trapped.

Before she had the chance to panic, Adrien was there. He cannoned into the boy that held Marinette's arm, forcing him to let go and defend himself. With him occupied, the only one Marinette had to worry about was Alix.

At least, until Alya ran up and grabbed the strap, too.

For a split second of cold lucidity, Marinette realized that she was not going to leave the courtyard with her purse. She looked at it, desperate, and found the zipper sliding open, and Tikki's big blue eyes peering up at her frantically.

“Guys, I am really sorry about this,” Marinette whispered, before grabbing Alix by the hair and clunking her head into Alya's, as gently as she dared. It stunned them just long enough for her to snatch Tikki out of her purse and duck out of the strap.

Clever Tikki had dragged Marinette's wallet out with her and was half-hidden inside. Tucking them both in her jacket's inside pocket, Marinette took stock of the others in a flash. Adrien was still struggling with the boy who had attacked her. Max had recovered and was making his way over, while the one whose wrist she had stepped on was still on the floor, clutching it.

Time to go.

When Adrien saw that she was free, he twisted away from his opponent and ran to join her. Together they reached the door, flung it open, and slammed it shut behind them.

* * *

Adrien was starting to feel his bruises again by the time they had a door between them and the students chasing them. Beside him, Marinette scrabbled with the door handle for a moment before finding and turning the lock. They did not pause for breath – their classmates pounded and yelled from the other side, sending the pair scurrying down the steps and into the long, blessedly quiet hallway.

It was only when they reached the maintenance area, where Myléne the Horrificator had once made her lair, that they finally stopped to breathe. Adrien felt his energy peter out until he was bent double with his hands on his knees, taking in deep gulps of air. Marinette broke away to grab a railing and just _lean_. Her body seemed too heavy for her. In less than a minute she had gone from somewhat-upright to a wobbly sitting position, still holding onto the railing as if for dear life. With one shaking hand, she pressed her cheek just below her right eye and winced.

Adrien took one last deep breath and felt his racing heartbeat ease. “You all right?' he asked.

She looked away. “Fine. It's nothing.” Her purse was gone, and her hand was cupped over one spot on her chest. Was she hurt? It must have been bad, if she was covering it like that.

“You sure?”

“I'm _fine._ ” It wasn't quite a snap, but it was enough to make Adrien shut his mouth. His stomach twisted when he saw her eyes – wide and staring, as if she was shaking off the threat of panic.

And why shouldn't she? Had she ever been in a fight like that before? Truth be told, aside from akuma battles as Chat Noir, he hadn't. Fencing matches aside, he'd never had to defend himself as Adrien Agreste for very long before. Certainly never on an empty stomach, either.

No wonder he'd made a mess of keeping Marinette safe. She'd practically been the one keeping _him_ alive.

“That was close,” Marinette said quietly, breaking the silence. She struggled up, using the bar to haul herself to her feet. “We need to get moving. They'll tell War, and – he'll probably have someone with a key.” She swayed slightly on her feet, and Adrien's heart went out to her. The distractions were gone, and the hunger was rearing its ugly head again. If he didn't find something to eat soon, he was going to start swooning. And not the fun kind of swooning, either.

He wanted nothing more than to tell her to sit down before she fell over, but she was right. Time was not on their side.

Marinette was already halfway across the room, homing in on a couple of promising-looking drawers. She grasped the handle and pulled, only to let go with a quiet cry of pain.

“Are you okay?” Adrien had caught up to her before he even registered that his feet were moving. He reached out without thinking, and she shrank back with her hand on her shoulder.

“Just pulled something.” She rotated her shoulder gingerly, face tightening when the movement stretched the boundaries of what was comfortable. “Must've happened when he grabbed me. It's nothing, I'll be fine.”

Adrien crouched to hide the misery on his face and opened the drawer to start leafing through. “Sorry about that.”

There was a pause. “Why?”

“I was already at the door by then,” he admitted. “I was a little slow helping you.”

Another moment of silence passed, broken only by footsteps. Marinette must have been spreading the search throughout the room. “You still came back,” she said quietly.

The corner of Adrien's mouth quirked upward wryly as he rooted through useless-looking paper files. “Least I could do. I know I'm probably the last person you'd want to get stuck like this with, but... doesn't mean we can't make the best of it, I guess.”

The footsteps stopped, and Marinette's voice sounded from a little farther away. “What do you mean by that?”

His insides gave an uncomfortable twist – hunger or embarrassment or both, he couldn't tell. “I, uh.” He paused, one finger flicking against the edge of a folder. What was the most tactful, inoffensive way to say this? “I mean, I know you don't really like me that much, and... I guess I don't blame you? We kind of got off on the wrong foot, way back when, and... we don't really talk much usually, so. Yeah.” He broke off lamely. “Sorry you're stuck with me, I guess.”

Marinette didn't answer immediately, and he couldn't bring himself to look for her reaction in her face. The silence was getting to him, so he shut the drawer and opened another.

And then finally, Marinette's voice broke the silence, smaller and more timid than he had ever heard before.

“You... think I don't like you?”

Something in her tone made him turn his head. She had stopped in the middle of inspecting the contents of a desk, and was staring at him. Surprise and dismay mingled on her face.

He blinked. “Am I wrong?”

She opened her mouth and closed it again a few times, as if searching for words that would not come, before she finally replied with a quiet but emphatic, “ _Yes._ ” As if she didn't have the words for how wrong he was.

Adrien could only gape back at her. “Oh,” he managed to say. “Um. Okay.”

“Yeah.”

“Glad that's cleared up then,” he mumbled. “We should just...”

“Find a way out,” Marinette finished for him, returning to her search.

“Right. Sooner we get out, sooner we can-” _find some food so I can transform._ “...get word to Ladybug.”

“You really believe in her, don't you?” There was an odd note to Marinette's voice, some emotion that Adrien couldn't name.

The image of his Lady's masked face passed through his mind, banishing the fog. In spite of himself, Adrien smiled. “Can you blame me? You believe in Chat Noir, don't you?”

“That's... different,” Marinette replied. “I-I mean, Ladybug's never saved you personally, h-has she?”

“She has, sort of.” Twice. Maybe not as direct as his rescues of Marinette, but she had defended his limo from the Mime's arrows and his house and his father from Jackady's minions. If he were to include the times that she had saved Chat Noir, well... they would be here all day. “Besides, she doesn't have to swoop in and carry me out of danger for me to believe in her. You'd be crazy _not_ to. She's amazing, and beautiful, and-”

Behind him he heard the slap of papers hitting the floor, and Marinette's muttered “ _Whoops_.”

“You all right?”

“Fine! Just... y'know me... butterfingers, haha. What were we talking about?”

In spite of himself, he smiled. “Just don't tell her I was gushing, okay?”

“Er, haha, lips are sealed. You should talk to Alya sometime, couple of big Ladybug fans should... have lots to talk about... I guess.”

“Heh. I know how Alya feels.” He shut the drawer and continued his search elsewhere. “Sometimes I'd give anything to know who she is, too.” He stopped short. Any more and he would be saying too much. He may have just found out that Marinette didn't dislike him as he'd thought, but that didn't mean she couldn't still find him annoying.

But if she had a complaint, she didn't voice it. They continued the search for information wordlessly, until Marinette finally spoke again. “I...” Her voice trailed off. “I, um...”

Adrien looked over his shoulder. “What is it?”

“I... think I found something.”

Leaving off his own search, Adrien crossed to the desk where she was spreading out a piece of thick paper. “That's great, is it a floor plan or something?”

“Or something. I think it's a map of just this area” Marinette scooted to the side so that he could see. Sure enough, her find was a detailed diagram of the very maintenance area where they were hiding. “There's a lot of technical stuff on it I don't understand, so I think it's like a map for workers and repairmen, maybe?”

“That's exactly what we're looking for.” Adrien traced his finger over the diagram. Looking at it, he could even identify the place where Myléne had taken everyone as an akuma. But what interested him was a pair of parallel lines running alongside the maintenance area, just like... “Is that the street outside? It's not labeled, so I can't really tell.”

“Yeah, I think it might be. See?” Marinette pointed to a smaller rectangle squashed between the lines and the edge of the school building. “That's the shed we saw earlier. And-”

“There's a way through.” Two more parallel lines connected the school building to the shed – there was a path, conveniently labeled _maintenance tunnel_. He looked around, then back at the map, trying to orient himself. “Okay, so here we are, and there's our exit.”

Marinette nodded as she frowned over the map. “Right. So if we go...”

“That way,” they said in unison, pointing in the same direction. They both paused, glanced at each other in surprise, and paused to have a giggle over it. In spite of himself Adrien felt his cheeks warm. His head cleared, if only a little.

In the distance, a door slammed open.

_Good feeling's gone._

“C'mon.” Adrien ran for the doorway that they had pointed to, while Marinette dawdled a few more seconds over the map, memorizing the way. Finally tearing herself away, she caught up to Adrien at the doorway just as two familiar faces appeared at the opposite side of the room. Adrien's heart leapt with dread. “Nino?”

His friend's eyes were suffused with red, his lips pulled back in a smile that was all teeth and no warmth. Beside him, a red-eyed Chloe was making a growling noise that would not have sounded out of place coming from a wolverine, and her ponytail hung in a loose mess on her head. Adrien had barely locked eyes with her when she turned her head to shriek over her shoulder.  
“Get over here! We have them cornered!”

_Nope_ , Adrien's entire brain screamed. _Nope, nope, nope._ Instinct made him grab for Marinette's arm as they turned and ran – to reassure himself that she was still there, to make sure they didn't lose track of each other, he wasn't quite sure why. She clutched at his shoulder in response, and together they made a break for their only chance of escape. One left turn around a corner, then a short hallway to another room, and there it was.

“Hatch,” Marinette gasped.

He spotted it, a trapdoor in the floor at the other side of the room. To pull off this escape, two things had to go right: one, the hatch had to be unlocked, and two, they had to have put enough distance between themselves and Chloe and Nino to get it open.

He grabbed the handle and heaved upward, trying to lift with his legs instead of his back. As soon as he had pulled it up far enough, Marinette got her fingers under the edge of the hatch and helped him lift it. She whimpered with pain, favoring her injured arm. Between the two of them, they managed to swing the hatch up and over on its hinges. Ladder rungs led down into a dimly lit tunnel, not far below the ground level. It was short enough to jump without hurting himself

Adrien was about to do exactly that when arms wrapped around his neck and hauled him backward and away from the hatch. He struggled in the headlock with a choked cry, and the arms only tightened until he could feel a dangerous pressure to his windpipe. A shriek of pain and fury made him look to Marinette, just in time to see Chloe drag her by the hair away from the open hatch. As he fought against the chokehold, Chloe dumped Marinette on the floor and threw her full weight on top of her to keep her from escaping.

“Quit squirming, will ya?” Nino's voice hissed in his ear. “If you wanna fight, then save it for when Ladybug and Chat Noir show up.”

“ _Oh I will,_ ” Adrien rasped, choking and spitting with Nino's arms squeezing his throat. His mind was beginning to fog, and he fought to remember how to slip out of a headlock. If he wasn't careful then he'd end up hurting Nino, and if he was too careful then he wouldn't escape at all. Chloe had Marinette pinned flat on her back, dragging her nails over Marinette's face as she thrashed and kicked to free herself.

Adrien cringed inwardly when he elbowed Nino's ribs. His friend's grip loosened, enough for Adrien to twist his head to the side and ease the pressure on his airway. Sucking in a breath, he found his feet and managed to step back and around, so that his right leg was behind Nino's left. Then, with another elbow-jab to Nino's stomach, he turned sharply and threw his friend backward over his hip as gently as he could. Nino went over with a yelp, and Adrien grabbed the front of his shirt to control his friend's fall and keep him from whacking his head on anything. Once he had successfully dumped Nino on the ground, he sprang toward the open hatch and turned to see how he could help Marinette.

He turned just in time; a second slower, and he wouldn't have seen her latch onto Chloe's jacket with her injured arm, pull herself a few inches off the ground, wind back, and slam her fist straight into Chloe's eye.

The punch sent Chloe rocking back. Adrien saw her eyes cross, before she finally tipped and fell flat on her back, stunned. Marinette scrambled up, breath hissing through her teeth, and stumbled over Chloe's legs on her way to the hatch. Dumbstruck, Adrien could only follow her down into the tunnel.

They weren't out of the woods by a long shot; Nino and Chloe had slowed them down, and Adrien could hear the distant sound of running footsteps. In moments there would probably be people in the tunnel with them. But that was okay – there were more ladder rungs up ahead, and hopefully another unlocked hatch. They had guessed right; War's siege wall didn't reach underground.

He ought to say something, he realized. It wasn't every day one witnessed a sweet, awkward classmate haul off and punch the mayor's daughter in the face. He wasn't going to forget that in a hurry. “Marinette, that was...” _Hot_ , his brain finished for him, which was a little worrying. “...amazing. Back there, I mean.”

Her teeth flashed in a white smile in the dark. “I've been wanting to do that since we were ten.”

Thanks to the ladder, only one of them could reach the hatch at a time. Adrien climbed the rungs and shoved upward with all his might, almost crying with relief when he found it unlocked. It was halfway open when voices came from below.

“Hurry!” Marinette hissed up at him.

Adrien heaved. Desperate energy helped him shove the hatch open all the way. He clambered out as quickly as he could, then turned to wait for Marinette. She was pulling herself up one-handed on the ladder rungs. It made her slow – the first of their pursuers that Adrien spotted was Alix, when she appeared out of the shadows to grab Marinette's leg and pull her back down.

“No!” Adrien flung himself down, grabbing Marinette's good arm with one hand and bracing against the edge of the opening with the other. The crazed game of tug-o-war ended when Marinette kicked Alix in the shoulder and let Adrien haul her out of the opening.

“We're clear,” she gasped. “We're clear we're clear, let's just _go_.”

Adrien could almost taste freedom. From here it was simple – find a store, grab some cheese, transform, and hope that Marinette could get word to Ladybug. He flung open the door, and they were out in the sunlight by the time Alix had made it to the top of the ladder. A grin spread across his face as he caught sight of the hazy red force field – this time, they were outside of it.

A heavy weight hit him like a rugby tackle, knocking him to the ground. “Oh, COME ON!” he heard himself yell. He rolled with his attacker, letting momentum carry him until his feet were under him again. He popped back up, or at least tried to. His attacker, one of the higher-grade boys in his school, grabbed his shirt front and tried to yank him back down, only to let go with a yell of pain and jerk back his suddenly-bleeding hand.

Adrien glanced down just in time to spot the the flick of Plagg's tail as his kwami retreated to his hidden pocket.

Springing away, he looked around wildly to take stock of the situation. His stomach dropped – War's force field was still intact, all except one section of it. On this side of the building, it was parting like a curtain, leaving War's victims free to hurl themselves from the windows and rush them. A livid-looking Alix appeared at the shed doorway, and there were probably more coming behind her. In the space of three seconds, they had gone from home free to surrounded all over again.

Adrien dodged a lunge and looked to the force field again. To his shock, it was reforming – outward. The two disconnected edges of the glowing siege wall spell were growing back, this time away from the school's outer wall. Adrien tracked their progress with growing horror. Soon the force field would surround the shed, the brainwashed students, Marinette, and himself. The two ends would meet, and they would be trapped, this time for good.

“ _Get off of me!_ ” Marinette's shriek distracted him, and he twisted and took a kick to his hip rather than his already aching stomach. She was being set upon from all sides – Kim was behind her, pinning her arms to her sides so that all she could do was kick out at anyone who came at her from the front.

A strange, cold clarity came over him then. Time slowed in his mind, allowing him to pick apart the situation piece by piece.

The wall was reforming, and fast. Marinette was trapped, and even if she could free herself, she couldn't do it in time to escape. No one was holding Adrien. If he ran now, he could make it out easily. He could feed Plagg, transform, come back, and... well, he couldn't cleanse akuma by himself, but he could raise enough of a fuss to attract Ladybug's attention. He could escape, here and now. All he had to do was leave Marinette behind.

He didn't waste even a second on considering it.

Kim wasn't prepared for him. Dodging red-eyed students, Adrien swerved around behind Kim and punched him in the lower back, cringing when his classmate gasped in wordless pain. It did the trick; Marinette twisted free, and this time when Adrien reached for her, she reached back.

Hand in hand, they ran for the rapidly closing gap. Adrien's heart was in his throat. The opening was two shoulder-widths apart and closing fast, and they weren't quite there yet. They weren't going to make it.

_They_ weren't going to make it.

But maybe-

He let go of her hand, and grabbed the back of her jacket instead. With one last burst of speed, he shoved forward and flung her into the gap, hard enough that her feet actually left the ground. Marinette hurtled through, falling to her hands and knees. She looked back, eyes wide, as the force field slid closed behind her.

Adrien slammed into it with a sinking heart. He pounded against the wall uselessly, but it was as smooth and solid as bulletproof glass. His eyes stung, and through the red haze of the force field and the gathering blur of frustrated tears, he saw Marinette staring at him with speechless horror.

He pounded the wall again, not sure if she could even hear him on the other side. “Marinette, get out of here!” he shouted. “Just go!”

She hesitated. She staggered back to her feet as if her legs were made of lead, never taking her eyes off of him. But finally she turned and broke into a stumbling run.

Adrien tore his eyes away then, turning back to the crowd of red-eyed students.

“Shame,” Alix snorted. “Still, here's one more for the troops. War'll fix him.”

_Never again._ Adrien's eyes narrowed, and the cold settled over him again. He welcomed the feeling; it kept him calm and in control. He stared back, his voice flat and defiant.

“You still haven't caught me yet.”

 


	5. Chapter 5

Marinette ran.

She gave no thought to pacing herself, or conserving the dregs of her energy, or showing caution in any way. She ran until her lungs burned, until her mouth was bone-dry and her breath scraped in her throat. Her world was a blur, her feet two points of throbbing pain as they pounded the pavement. Passersby could only dodge out of her way – she did not slow her pace until she had reached the nearest supermarket.

Finally, she allowed herself to walk briskly instead of run. Her appearance drew stares from other shoppers, but she was past caring. Not that she could blame them, especially when she hurried past the frozen foods and caught sight of her reflection in the glass doors. Her pigtails were loose from being yanked and jostled, and her clothes were rumpled, but most noticeable was her face. There was already a mark below her eye where Alya's elbow had struck her, and Chloe's nails had left lines of reddened, raised skin.

There was no time for ruminating on her appearance. If anything, she should be grateful for it; it made people keep their distance. Uninhibited, she found what she needed: a small package of cookies, and after a moment to dwell on it, a plastic-wrapped sandwich, for Adrien.

Pressure grew from her chest to her throat, and her eyes burned. Marinette almost crushed the cookies in her grip on her way to the checkout line. She clenched her teeth until her jaw creaked. The line was blessedly short. She might have attracted a few akuma herself if it hadn't been.

When she finally approached the cashier, a brief panic almost stopped her short. Her purse was gone, so how would she pay-? The lump in her jacket's inner pocket calmed her. Of course. Tikki had taken it along back when Marinette snatched her out of the purse and ran.

She reached beneath her jacket and felt her kwami pass her the wallet. Wordlessly she paid for her things and left.

Marinette returned to her school at a brisk jog instead of the frenzied dash from before. War's force field still surrounded the shed and stretched as high as the roof in a round, translucent wall. It was empty of people now, and the windows were closed. Across the street from the collége, she found an empty bus shelter and sat down. Her legs shook until she took the weight off of them, and she fumbled with the packaging of the cookies. Her fingers kept slipping, and she couldn't get it open. That final tiny annoyance tipped the scales against her.

Marinette's vision blurred, the painful pressure in her chest rose, and she gave vent to a flood of tears.

Dimly she felt Tikki leave her pocket, and heard the rustling of plastic as her kwami opened the cookies herself. Half blind with tears, Marinette placed both Tikki and the cookies to the side so that she could curl in on herself and let loose all the guilt and desperation and stomach-churning _fear_ that had built up and weighed upon her all day. There was no use trying to stem the flood of tears, or muffle her own sobbing, however hard she tried.

A tiny, gentle hand stroked her cheek, avoiding the bruises and scratches. “It's all right,” Tikki whispered close by her ear. “Marinette, it's all right.”

“N-no it's not. It's not all right-”

“It's going to be.”

“I messed up, Tikki,” Marinette wailed. “I messed everything up, and Adrien-”

“It wasn't your fault.” Tikki cuddled close. “You were outnumbered and trapped. You did everything you could, and Marinette, you did _wonderfully_.”

Sniffling, Marinette shook her head and wiped uselessly at her streaming eyes. “Why'd he do that, Tikki? Why did he-?”

Tikki flew around until she hovered in front of Marinette's face. “Because he knew you could help, Marinette,” she said with a gentle smile. “Because he trusted you, and he had faith in you, even if he didn't know the real reason why.”

Her head-shaking only grew more vigorous. “I-I don't deserve that, not when I-”

“You didn't do anything wrong,” Tikki insisted. “You did everything you could, and so did Adrien.”

“He could have saved himself.”

“But he didn't.” With another warm smile, her kwami pointed at her. “He saved _you_. And, even if he didn't know it, when he did that he _was_ saving himself. Because guess what?”

Wiping her eyes, Marinette managed a wobbly smile. “What?”

Tikki's grin widened, and she gestured toward the savaged cookie package on the bench. “I'm not hungry anymore.” She flew forward to rest her hands on the tip of Marinette's nose. “So now you _can_ fix this. And you will.” She tilted her head. “You should eat something too. I know Famine's magic affected you, too.”

Marinette blinked, and the storm of worries within her finally began to settle. Wordlessly, she followed Tikki's advice. A few cookies was enough to ease the hunger pangs in her stomach. She took a deep breath, let it out again, and repeated until her chest stopped hitching when she did. Then she wiped her eyes again, and this time they stayed dry. Her head cleared, and by the time she set the food aside, her shakes were gone. “Okay... I'm ready.” She reached up to tug her pigtails back into place. “Sorry, Tikki, that was... that was a little silly, wasn't it? I don't know what came over me.”

“It's all right to cry, Marinette,” Tikki assured her. “Especially when you're afraid for your friends. Don't ever think it's not all right.”

Marinette got to her feet, leaving the remaining cookies and the sandwich on the bench. She would be back for them later – she was sure of it. “Well, even so, I'm done crying,” she said brusquely. “And I'm done being afraid.” She stepped out of the bus shelter and gazed up at the red force field, hands curling into fists.”It's past time we fixed this. Tikki, spots on!”

* * *

Adrien would never complain about his extracurriculars again. Even without Chat Noir's magically enhanced agility and reflexes, he was no slouch himself. Fencing practice kept him nimble and strong even with his miraculous dormant, and that was all that kept him from being captured immediately.

With Marinette out of danger, Adrien felt the knot of tension in his chest loosen. The rest of him loosened as well, and when Kim lunged for him, he ducked his classmate's arm and slipped past him. From there he was constantly moving – ducking, dodging, pivoting, and changing direction whenever one of his brainwashed schoolmates got close enough to grab him. He stayed on his toes until his winding, zig-zagging path brought him all the way to the other side of the crowd.

The shed was no longer blocked from him, but the maintenance tunnel was small and easily crowded. And for all he knew, there were others waiting for him on the other side. On the other hand, the windows were now open, with no more force field standing in his way now that it had moved beyond the shed.

Without another thought, he dashed to the school building and vaulted through the open window. A red-eyed Juleka was there to fling herself at him with a yell, and he dodged her by leaping onto one of the desks. Before she had the chance to change tactics, he ran along the length of the desk, leapt to the next, and kept running until he was close enough to the door to jump off and land in the hallway outside. The War kids from outside were climbing through the window after him, but the narrow space forced them to bottleneck. Slamming the door behind him, he took off down the hall.

He rounded a corner and paused, shifting from foot to foot as he caught his breath.

“That was your one chance.”

Adrien looked down. Plagg's green eyes blinked slowly up at him, as if the kwami's eyelids were almost too heavy to lift. He looked every bit as tired as Adrien felt.

Guilt gnawed at him with sharp little teeth. He couldn't regret saving Marinette, but he was back to square one with nothing else to show for it and not even a crumb for Plagg.

“Sorry,” he sighed, when he had breath enough to speak. “I know, I just...”

“You had to save the girl first,” Plagg said.

“I _tried_.” Adrien's voice cracked. “I didn't just – it wasn't like with Ladybug, I wasn't _trying_ to sacrifice myself, okay? I was trying to save all of us, but I just... wasn't fast enough.” He leaned back against the wall, trying to steady his own pulse. “It was that or leave her. And I couldn't just...”

“You could have,” Plagg told him. “You definitely could have left her. But you didn't.”

Adrien blinked at him, surprised. He expected Plagg to criticize him for it, or complain about it since his choice had left both their stomachs empty. But Plagg's tone was carefully neutral, and there was a look in his bright green eyes that Adrien couldn't quite recognize.

“I _guess_ it's not a total loss,” Plagg went on. “Especially if she, ah, actually knows Ladybug.”

“She does.” Adrien wasn't sure why, but he felt a strong sense of conviction about it. It just seemed... plausible. Inevitable, even. “It might be better.”

“Oh?”

“I can't contact her through my communicator unless she's transformed,” he explained. “Maybe Marinette can. If I'd gotten out, I could be fighting two akuma on my own. It's better to make sure Ladybug gets here. I can't cleanse them, but she can.”

“Very logical,” Plagg remarked. “Was that what you were thinking, when you pushed her through?”

“No,” Adrien admitted. “I wasn't really thinking at all.”

“I've heard that before,” his kwami muttered. “So what now?”

Adrien took a deep breath and let it out. “Plan B was to move up instead of down,” he said. “It still is. The wall is still, well, a wall, so the top of the school is still open. When Ladybug gets here, that's how she'll get in.”

“That's also where you think War and Famine are,” Plagg reminded him.

“Ladybug could be on her way already,” Adrien said. “Even if we don't find a way, we could still help her... somehow.”

“Somehow,” Plagg echoed, a bit dubiously.

“It's our best shot,” Adrien insisted. “It's either go up and take our chances, or stay down here and hide until we get caught and leave Ladybug to fend for herself.”

“She can probably handle it.”

Adrien's jaw clenched. “Well she shouldn't have to.”

“Hm.”

Adrien shot another look at his kwami. There was that tone again – if he didn't know better, he would have said Plagg sounded thoughtful. Plagg was a lot of things, and “thoughtful” definitely wasn't one of them. “'Hm' what?”

Before Plagg had the chance to answer, approaching footsteps sent Adrien running from his hiding place. There was no time for stealth anymore. He didn't need to hide, and he didn't need to fight. All he needed to do now was keep moving, keep running and dodging, and stay free for as long as he could.

And to stay away from War.

This time, he didn't bother to stop at the entrance to the courtyard. He dashed out into the open, ignoring the shouts from the few sentries that were left. His eyes flickered from one staircase to another. At the top of one, some of the War kids were loitering within striking distance. At the top of the other, no one. Picking the latter, he reached the foot of the steps and raced up them two at a time. Someone grabbed his foot and pulled back, and he went down with a stifled cry. He flung out his hands barely in time to break his fall, and even then his chin hit the corner of a step. By some miracle, he managed not to bite his tongue. Skull rattled, he kicked off the hand holding his ankle, then scrambled up and didn't stop until he was at the second floor.

His chin stung, and something trickled toward his throat. The fall on the steps had scraped his palms as well.

But Adrien didn't need his hands to stay ahead of them. He stayed light on his feet, running on his toes so that he could pivot and weave and switch directions at a moment's notice. A few of the red-eyed faces that came at him were familiar – Ivan barreling through the other kids like a bowling ball, Sabrina with an eager smile on her face, a livid Chloe not far behind her with her teeth bared and one eye nearly swollen shut.

They all had something in common, however: cripplingly one-track minds. Any garbage can he overturned in their path had them stumbling. Any change in his escape route frustrated them, and any zigzagging, weaving path had their heads spinning. They were fast and strong, but Adrien's mind was still his own, and he used it.

The front door, the windows, and the one side door he had tried told him one thing: the force field was right up against the school. There was only one side where it wasn't, and that was the side where the shed was, where War had moved the wall out to encircle it. That would be Ladybug's entrance of choice; that way she could reach the windows. Breaking away from his pursuers with an extra burst of speed, Adrien sprinted around to that side. With a little luck, he could meet her there. He was sure of it.

He almost pulled it off. He came so close – one step farther, a half-second faster, and he would have been off and running again, drawing circles around them until help could arrive. But his luck turned sour. With his head turned to see how many were still after him, he never saw it coming.

Someone hit him like the proverbial ton of bricks, slamming him into the nearest wall, and it took him a moment to recognize Nino.

Precious seconds slipped through his fingers as he twisted and struggled in vain. “Nino, _please_ ,” he hissed desperately, trying to shove his friend away. Nino stood firm, holding him pinned against the wall hard enough to hurt. “C'mon, Nino, it's me!” Adrien pleaded. He pushed against Nino's shoulders, trying to make enough room to wriggle free. “It's me, your best friend! You have to know this is wrong, don't you?” He locked eyes with his friend, searching desperately for something familiar in Nino's bloodshot glare. “Just let me go. I-I can... I can _help_ you. I promise, just-”

Lip curling, Nino turned his head and shouted over his shoulder. “Hurry up, guys, before he slips away again!”

Adrien kneed him in the stomach, flinching at his friend's grunt of pain, and finally twisted free. It was too little, too late; Nino's shout had brought the rest of the War kids running. With sheer numbers they overwhelmed him. No one else grabbed him, but they cut off almost all of his possible escape routes. There was nowhere left to run in the hallway. The only way to go was through the nearest classroom door.

Well aware that he was being herded, Adrien took his chances anyway. Hurtling into the classroom, he shut the door behind him and leaned against it with all his might. The weight of many students shoved back, threatening to push through the door and sandwich him between it and the wall, but he dug his heels in and held it still with nothing more than adrenaline.

 _I can buy time this way,_ he realized. _Just until Ladybug gets here._ There was a window in this room. Windows were locked from the outside, but they could be opened from the inside. An idea came to him in a flash.

“Plagg,” he gritted out. “Plagg open the window.”

“I can't.”

“Plagg I know you're hungry, but I need your help with this one!” His shoes slid on the floor, and he scrabbled and kicked until he got the door shut again. “Ladybug – she'll see it, she'll have a way in once she gets over the wall, but I can't move from the door and I can't reach it from here.”

There was a pause.

“Adrien,” Plagg said wearily. “The door. Has a lock.”

At any other time, Adrien might have banged his forehead against the wall.

He reached for the lock, just in time to see black mist leaking through the cracks in the door.

“What the-” He never finished the sentence. The mist touched him, and he crumpled with a cry of pain at the sudden twisting agony in his stomach. This was beyond simple hunger – the pain was like knives in his gut, as if his insides were suddenly fed up with the lack of food and had resorted to eating themselves instead.

He was on his knees in an instant, dry-heaving as the door behind him opened. Some base instinct made him scramble forward, crawling until he could pull himself to his feet on the corner of a desk. He made it to the window and heaved it open, and that was when hands grabbed him by the arms, yanked him away, and forced him to turn around.

Adrien hadn't seen War and Famine since the start of the attacks. It felt like hours had passed since then. Famine's right hand still rippled with black energy, and she was smirking at him. His breathing was noisy around the pain, and it seemed to amuse her.

For a moment Adrien focused on her hand. There was something on it – a bracelet? There was a charm on it, but he couldn't see it from so far off.

“Damn.” It was War who spoke first. He was wearing a necklace, in the shape of a sword. Just looking at it made the hairs on the back of Adrien's neck stand on end. “ _Damn_ you're a fighter. My guys could learn a thing or two.” He was smirking too, as he took in Adrien's bruised face, the dried blood on his lip and chin, and his defiant expression.

“I guess he's impressive,” Famine said, stepping closer. “If he's fighting for himself. Look-” She reached for him, as if about to touch him again with her power. Instinctively he shrank back against the kids holding him. She faked a few more passes, teasing him but never actually touching him, and laughed whenever he flinched.

“What's the matter?” she asked. “You don't like to be helpless? You don't like to be bullied?” She clipped him on the chin, and her bracelet's charm swung close enough to see. It was a tiny little balance, like the scales of justice. “You don't like waiting for someone to come save you?” she went on. “I wonder, why doesn't anyone stop me? Hm?” Her eyes glittered.

With a jolt, Adrien remembered who she was, and why this had happened to her. “I'm sorry.” His voice cracked. “I should've-”

“But you didn't.” Famine moved back again, and War took her place. “One more for the ranks, War.”

War's hand glowed red.

 _No_. Adrien thrashed in his schoolmates' grasp, elbowing and kicking and trying to stay as far away from that hand as he possibly could. Someone cuffed him, but he kept up the struggle. He wasn't about to hand them this one. He wasn't throwing himself in front of an arrow or letting them steal a doll; if they wanted to brainwash him then he was going to make them _work_ for it. “Stay away from me,” he hissed.

War didn't bother answering, but Famine did. “Go ahead,” she taunted. “Call for help. No one's going to help you, either.”

War's hand was moments away from touching him when the boy holding his right shoulder suddenly squawked and lunged between them, shielding Adrien from the curse. It was only when War's shocked eyes fixed on something behind Adrien that he realized the boy hadn't lunged at all; he'd been pushed. Before Adrien had quite finished processing this, a blur of scarlet flashed past him, grabbing one of the War kids and flinging him straight into the crowd of red-eyed students at War's back. The boy landed hard, scattering them like pins.

Ladybug stood in the middle of the classroom, her bandalore humming dangerously as she whirled it. The boy on Adrien's left stiffened with a cry of alarm when the thin cable wrapped around his torso and yanked him away. Ivan broke through the scattered War kids and charged, but Ladybug pulled hard on the cord and swung Adrien's former guard straight into him like a human meteor hammer. With both of them incapacitated, she hurled herself straight at the boy she had shoved between Adrien and War. Adrien caught a glimpse of her face just seconds before she tore his remaining captor away from him.

His pulse tripped over itself – she had bluebell eyes, soft like the late afternoon sky, but now they were blue like chips of ice. Never in all their months of partnership had he seen such fury on his Lady's face.

“Hurry up and touch him!” Famine shrieked. War seemed to shake himself out of his shock and moved forward again. But with one of Adrien's detainers thrown into the crowd and the other lassoed to the floor, there was nothing stopping Adrien from springing back to avoid him.

That was when Ladybug placed herself between them. Adrien cried out before he could stop himself – if War touched her, then all was lost. But instead, she caught War by the wrist and twisted, forcing the akuma's arm behind his back. Adrien remembered that move – she'd done it on him once when he made the mistake of sneaking up on her. She was a lot less gentle with War than she had been with him.

War yelled with pain, and Ladybug gave him a solid kick in the back that pushed him into Famine. Turning on her heel, she made a beeline for Adrien. His pulse stuttered again when she snaked her arm around his waist and pulled him along to the window.

“Hold on,” she said, and he slung both arms around her neck before he had the chance to hesitate. His feet left the floor, and Ladybug sprang out the open window.

It was different – it could not have been further from what he was used to as Chat Noir. Chat Noir bounded over rooftops, sprang over alleys, and took death-defying leaps with barely a thought. But he was not Chat Noir right now; he was Adrien Agreste, and Adrien Agreste did not have feline reflexes, or supernatural speed and strength, or a staff to break his fall. The only thing standing between him and a painful introduction to the pavement was Ladybug.

His fear vanished.

His stomach turned upside down when they plummeted for a split second after leaping from the window, only to right itself when Ladybug's bandalore snagged on a rooftop fixture, and they shot upward. She swung him up onto the roof and barely paused for solid footing before she flung her weapon toward the roof of the nearest neighboring building. Her arm tightened around Adrien's waist as she sprang again, and Adrien could only cling for dear life as they vaulted up and over the force field. Now he shut his eyes, breathed in, and savored the feeling of flying in a way he never had before.

When his feet touched the ground again, he stumbled. Now that the danger had passed, the long-overdue shakes caught up with him. Ladybug kept a hold of him without complaint, helping him to the shelter of a bus stop until he could lower himself onto a bench. The cuts and scrapes on his face stung, his eye throbbed, his feet were sore and leaden, and his stomach still felt like it was trying to eat itself.

With some effort, he lifted his heavy eyelids and stared up into a pair of worried eyes, blue framed in red and black.

“Marinette?” he said.

Ladybug blinked, shock flitting across her face. “W-what?”

“I-is she okay?” he asked. Dizzy with hunger, his own voice sounded far away. “She got away earlier, but... is she okay?”

His partner's face softened. “Sh-she's safe,” she assured him. “I sent her home. Oh, a-and, she told me about Famine, so – here.” She offered him a wrapped, store-bought sandwich.

“Thank you.” He took it, unable to hide his surprise. She'd brought him food. She didn't know who he was, what she meant to him or even what he meant to her, but she'd thought to bring him something. Just because Marinette had told her about the akuma–

 _The akuma_.

“They're in the jewelry,” he said.

“What?”

“War has a necklace,” he explained. “Famine has a bracelet. There are charms on them – a sword and a set of scales. I think that's where the akuma are.”

Ladybug nodded, her eyes determined. “Got it. Thank you.” She hesitated, and her eyes roved over his face. “I have to go. Will you be all right?”

“I'm... fine...” Adrien looked her in the eye again, and he was transfixed. For a moment he was half convinced that she _knew_ , that somehow she'd found out who he was, in spite of her determination to keep their identities secret. Why else would she look at him with that depth of worry? Had she been afraid for him?

“Marinette told me what happened,” she blurted. “She told me about – about what you did for her.”

He was about to stammer out a reply when her hand cupped the side of his head, steadying him, and the words sputtered out before they left his mouth. He stared straight ahead, wide-eyed and frozen, as his Lady pressed a kiss to his forehead.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For saving her.” And then she was gone.

Adrien might have stayed there, gaping after her, if it hadn't been for Plagg. His kwami crawled out of his pocket and down to the sandwich in his hand, sniffing eagerly.

“So what's in the sandwich?”

Plaggs voice jolted him out of his reverie, and he shakily unwrapped the sandwich and parted the bread. There, nestled amid the meat and lettuce and tomatoes, were a few good slices of soft white cheese. A quiet, breathless laugh left him as he picked them out and offered them to his hungry kwami. “My Lady came through for us.”

“Not Camembert,” Plagg sighed. “Still, it'll do.”

A few bites of the sandwich were enough to take the edge off the gnawing in his stomach, and Adrien finally began to feel human again. “You ready?”

“Eat more,” Plagg advised. “Humans are weird – filling your bellies is always so _complicated_.”

Impatiently Adrien obeyed, but to Plagg's credit it did help. With food in his stomach he felt less light-headed and shaky, and more awake.

Strengthened once more, Plagg took flight. “I take it you won't be sitting this one out?”

Adrien re-wrapped the rest of the sandwich, set it aside, and stood up. Hopefully he'd be able to come back for it – it would be a shame to waste a gift from Ladybug. “Not on your life, Plagg. Claws out!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do love me some Ladrien.


	6. Chapter 6

Ladybug vaulted over the heads of the War kids, her eyes fixed on Famine. Her suit and magic protected her from a lot of things – it was impossible to cut, burn, or otherwise damage the material, and it absorbed most direct impact. But magic might be another story. If Famine could starve her kwami once, then she might be able to do it again, and that made her the priority even more than War.

She kept her fighting defensive, choosing to dodge and deflect and redirect rather than hit back. Her own magic might fix any damage once all was said and done, but she still preferred not to harm Hawk Moth's victims. It wasn't easy – turning Max aside was quite a bit different from trying the same with Ivan.

Her hulking classmate bulled past her as she dodged him once more. Best strategy was to keep him from laying a hand on her, and keep him charging. He broke up the other kids' ranks and strategies when he did that. And she could do it – he was strong, but she was fast. Even with the place as crowded as it was, she could draw circles around him.

But she was still outnumbered, and the villains themselves were smart about it, leading the troops from behind. This was a two-person job, and there was only one of her. She had tried calling Chat Noir right after leaving Adrien, but he hadn't picked up. He probably didn't even know there was a problem, and with Alya counted among the War kids, it was likely he wouldn't find out at all. She was fairly certain that he followed the Ladyblog, but if its author wasn't available to post updates, then the chances that he'd wander by were next to zero.

She might be on her own for this one.

_Not completely,_ she reminded herself. _Adrien was here. Adrien helped me._

If nothing else, at least he was safe.

At one point, she dodged too slowly. Ivan's swung fist clipped the side of her head, and she staggered dizzily as he wound up for another blow.

A familiar furious yell rang out, and a blur of black came between her and the incoming punch. Ladybug watched, dumbfounded, as Chat Noir hurled himself at Ivan and got slammed in the face for his troubles. He went down, but instead of rolling away with the impact, he rolled closer to Ivan's feet, shoved his staff between them, and tangled them. Ladybug saw Ivan overbalance and come crashing down, and barely managed to yank her partner out of the way by his belt tail.

For some reason she was tempted to laugh when she saw his face, though it was probably just nervousness and slightly hysterical relief. Besides that, it _was_ a little absurd. Chat had more or less thrown his face at Ivan's fist, and he had a bruise, a bloody nose, and a split lip to show for it. He'd been in the fight for all of four seconds and already his face looked even worse than Adrien's. How big _was_ Ivan's fist?

“Did you think that through at all?” she chided him as she helped him up. They were still surrounded on all sides by their corrupted classmates, but she felt miles better now that he was here.

He gave her a lopsided grin. It might have been charming if it hadn't been for the nosebleed. “You'd be surprised. Sorry I'm late.”

In spite of herself, she smiled back. “Better late than never.”

“I was messing around on the rooftops and, ah, ran into someone,” he said, tripping Alix with his staff. “Whatsisname, the Agreste kid. He told me what was going on, and I made sure he got home safe.”

Relief filled her. “Thank you, Chat.”

“My pleasure, my lady.” He narrowed his eyes with a dangerous grin. “What's the plan?”

“I need you to run interference,” she replied. “Don't let them grab you, and don't let War – that's him in red – touch you, or he'll turn you into one of them. Hopefully we can end this fast.”

He nodded. “Got it. Get clear, and I'll cover you.”

Throwing her yo-yo, Ladybug swung over their heads and landed out in the hallway, with Chat Noir springing nimbly to follow and cover her back. Without hesitation, she swung it upward again. “Lucky Charm!”

In a scarlet and white starburst of magic, a black-spotted box appeared and fell into her hands. She couldn't tell what it was immediately, but it felt pleasantly warm to the touch.

“What do I...?” Chat grabbed her free hand and pulled her along, and the pair of them fled full tilt from the stampeding War kid. Tucking the box under her arm, she wound her yo-yo and rushed alongside him. She needed something – anything to help them, to distract the veritable army that was chasing them.

There – a fire alarm up ahead. Thinking quickly, she pulled it as they passed.

The effect was almost immediate. The alarm blared, high, piercing, and raucous. Chat Noir cringed beside her, but he'd been expecting it the moment she reached for it. Many of the War kids, on the other hand, clapped their hands to their ears and staggered. Not all of them, but enough of them were affected to slow down the rest. With more distance between them and their pursuers, Ladybug had the chance to open up the box.

It was full of assorted cookies. Fresh-baked cookies, with a smell that made her mouth water.

Ladybug blinked. But how would...? Maybe... If they could just...

“Oh,” she whispered. She seized Chat's arm again. “Chat, downstairs. Courtyard. Cataclysm, come on.” It wasn't much of an explanation, but he followed her without question. With the fire alarm blaring in their ears, they made it down to the first floor. Ladybug pulled her partner to one of the windows. With a shove, she opened it, revealing the shimmering forcefield that trapped them in.

“Destroy it,” she said. Chat nodded.

“ _Cataclysm!_ ” One touch, and the translucent wall began to disappear. Their classmates caught up, and Chat was about to climb out when Ladybug stopped him and stepped up to the mob.

“Hey!” she called, pitching her voice over their heads so that everyone could hear above the alarm. When all eyes were on her, she tossed the box's lid aside and held it high, showing the contents for all to see. The smell of fresh-baked cookies spread, probably helped along by magic. Soon, no one was looking at her anymore. They were all looking at the box. “All yours!” she yelled, then turned and flung the box out the window.

Alix was the first to dive out the window after it. Many other students poured after her. Some ran to the other windows, or the doors, and found them unblocked. People yelled and screamed and fought their way outside, ignoring both heroes entirely. Chat's bewildered face might have been comical if it hadn't been streaked with blood. He met her eyes as the last of the War kids left, and in that moment she saw his expression change from bug-eyed astonishment to horror.

A flash of red in the corner of her vision made her dodge, and she barely missed a touch from War's glowing hand. She was left teetering off balance as War rounded on her and lunged. She dodged, and Chat pounced, hiding War from behind and bulling him to the ground. Famine charged forward, her hands outstretched, and Ladybug lassoed her wrists together and yanked. The akumatized girl fell forward, hands tied, and Ladybug was on her in a matter of moments.

“That'll teach you not to feed your troops,” she muttered darkly, then stooped to snatch her charm bracelet just as Chat Noir sprang back off of War with the necklace clutched in his hand. In almost perfect synchronicity, they dropped their respective items and crushed them underfoot.

A swipe of her finger activated her yo-yo, and Ladybug caught the escaping butterflies with two arcing swings. Light flashed, the red and black disc opened, and a pair of pure-white butterflies escaped out the open window and into the blue sky.

“Bye-bye, little butterflies,” she murmured.

Something red and black flew in from outside, landing and skidding on the floor. It was the lucky cookie box, now empty and crumpled. With a sigh, Ladybug snatched up the box and threw it into the air, crying her name as she did. The box burst, the damage was repaired, and all was right once more.

Mostly, anyway. The swarm of magical ladybugs fixed the damage to the school, it freed the students from War's control, and it wiped away War and Famine's menacing costumes. But Ladybug still felt her heart pound, and still felt the heavy weight in the pit of her stomach.

She still felt _tired_.

“Hey.”

Ladybug looked to Chat, blinking in a slight daze. There was concern in his bright green eyes, and the blood and bruises on his face were gone. “Are you all right, Chat?”

“I was gonna ask you the same thing.”

Was she shaking? She might have been shaking. “I'm a little tired,” she admitted. “Two akuma, you know.” He wouldn't know what she'd been through just to get to the point of transformation, and she couldn't tell him without giving him a vital clue to her identity.

_Beep beep._

And speaking of identities...

“Thank you, Chat,” she said at length, with a weary smile at him. “I think we'd better go.”

“Thank _you,_ Ladybug,” he replied, and that was confusing, because what had she done? She'd pulled him out from under Ivan, but not much else. For a moment she puzzled over it, before deciding that it was just Chat being gracious and charming again.

“No trouble,” she said. “I'll see you next time.”

They parted ways.

* * *

The entire ordeal had taken up most of the remainder of the school day, so Adrien had no reason to return after he ducked out to drop his transformation. He sort of wished he had – it would've been nice to see Marinette again. Just to make sure she really had gotten out all right – not that he didn't believe Ladybug, of course! But it would have been nice to talk to her. To ask her to her face, and... maybe thank her for sending Ladybug to him just in time.

“What are you doing here already?” Nathalie asked him the moment he walked through the door. “You know your father doesn't like it when you walk home. Why didn't you wait for your bodyguard?”

Adrien stared at her like she was speaking Welsh. She... she had to be kidding, right? But no, there was that disapproving stare. She meant every word.

“I hope this doesn't mean you ducked out of school early,” she went on severely. “After all that trouble I went through convincing your father to allow you to attend public school, I expect you not to squander it by cutting your classes.”

“Oh,” he said softly, as realization dawned on him. She didn't know. After everything that had happened at the school, she didn't even know. Ladybug's Miraculous Cure had fixed all the damage to his face, so she had no reason to assume anything terrible had happened.

He opened his mouth to tell her, and closed it. Maybe there were people he would have liked to talk to about it, but Nathalie wasn't one of them.

“I didn't cut,” he said at length. “Classes ended early. I didn't want to wait. You can call the school and confirm that. I have homework.” He walked out without waiting for a response. In the safety of his room, he collapsed on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

(He didn't actually have homework, aside from that history project that wouldn't be due for a while yet, but Adrien had had his fill of war tactics for the day.)

If Nathalie did call in and hear about the akuma attack, she said nothing. His father didn't call about it, either. That was fine by him. They hadn't been there. They wouldn't have known what it was like. They wouldn't have really understood if he tried to explain it to them.

The following day, he met Nino outside the school and endured a hug from Chloe that spun him around in a full circle. He ducked inside after that, fighting with prickling nerves. After seeing Chloe red-eyed and determined to strangle Marinette just the day before, the feeling of her arms around him was even less comfortable than it usually was.

Adrien stared around at the semi-crowded courtyard. Students were milling around, chatting, joking, laughing, as if they hadn't spent half the previous school day either at each other's throats or patrolling the hallways like a guerrilla army. As if most of them hadn't chased down and dragged the rest to an akuma's waiting hands.

Well, of course they would, his sensible side reasoned. They wouldn't remember what they did while they were brainwashed. They never do. There can't be any hard feelings if there are no memories of what happened in the first place.

“I wish you'd just tell me what's wrong,” a familiar voice caught his attention, and he glanced over to see Alya walking side by side with Marinette. They were talking, but Marinette's eyes were cast downward, and she maintained about a foot or so of distance between their shoulders. “Look, whatever I did while I was cuckoo, I'm really sorry. I never want to hurt you. You know that, right?”

“It's not you,” Marinette assured her quietly. “It's really not, I just... I'm being sort of silly, and it's hard to explain-” Her eyes flickered up to look at Alya, and in the process she caught sight of him. Their eyes met, and Adrien was struck by the floundering look on her face. She looked, above all else, alone and overwhelmed.

And for once he understood _exactly_ how she felt and why she felt it.

Marinette blinked at him, and seemed to come to a decision. Despite Alya concern and confusion, she left her friend's side and made a beeline straight for him. Before Adrien could greet her, or ask her if she was all right, she reached him and pulled him into a hug. She was shorter than him, but she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her forehead to his chest with a boldness that he almost never saw from her when he was involved.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice muffled. “Thank you for helping me.”

He was caught off guard, and for a moment he could only stand with his arms awkwardly at his sides, too bewildered and uncertain to return it immediately. A moment of dithering passed, and he put his arms around her gingerly. Even though she was the one who made the first move, even though she had initiated it, part of him wasn't completely sure it was okay to hug her back.

But it was, and Marinette's arms around him sent cracks running through his tension and uncertainty until he was hugging back more firmly, leaning into it with his chin on her shoulder. He swallowed against the pressure in his throat, and realized that he really, really didn't want to let go.

It wasn't that he'd never been hugged before. Chloe did it every other day if she could manage it, whether he liked it or not.

But that was the thing – Chloe did it as she liked, with no thought for what anyone else. Her affection was about staking claims and looking good. It was about having more than giving. It was, for all intents and purposes, a show she put on, a display of _this is what I want_ and _this is what I have because_ _I always get what I want_. She did it because she knew what it looked like, because it was what she wanted, because it was about her and she didn't give much thought to anything that wasn't about her. A hug from Chloe was... it was a lot like a nod of approval from Father. It said things like _you are good enough to meet my standards_ , or _what you do reflects on me and you've made me look good_.

But a hug from Marinette was like a kiss from Ladybug. Where Chloe's hug said _you are good enough for me,_ Marinette's hug said _you are good enough._

It said things like _you are good enough_ and _it's going to be all right_ and _you matter._ Not _you matter to me_ – just _you matter._ Period. _You exist, and you live, and you are, and that means that you are important_.

Maybe, if he burrowed into deep, long-buried memories, he might remember a time when he'd felt like that on his own. But digging up memories went hand in hand with poking old wounds, and he wasn't about to spoil this with something painful.

He hoped, in the back of his mind, that this wouldn't be the last time Marinette hugged him.

* * *

“Hey, Tikki?”

“Yes, Marinette?”

“...It's kind of stupid.”

“I'm sure it isn't. You know you can talk to me about anything.”

“It's about the other day, when Adrien... when he said he wanted to know who Ladybug was. I almost told him. Isn't that silly of me? And... kind of stupid? My secret identity keeps me safe as long as I keep it safe, and I almost... I was so ready to just blurt it out to him.”

“Do you want him to know that you're Ladybug?”

“No. I mean, yes? ...I don't know if I do or not. And if I do, I'm not sure that I want him to know for the right reasons. But...”

“Yes?”

“I was thinking about what you said about Chat Noir. About him being lonely. And... I think I get what you mean. It sort of hit me, when I saw Adrien today.

I... I have so many friends, Tikki. Alya and Rose and Juleka and Alix and Max and... everybody. But I can't talk to any of them. The only person I can talk to is you, and you're _wonderful_ , you really are! But...”

“But I'm not human. I can't truly understand what you're feeling, because I can't experience those feelings as you do. Is that what you were going to say?”

“...Yes. I'm sorry, Tikki, I don't mean to-”

“I understand, Marinette. Really, I do! Please don't worry about me. There has always been a... separation. Between myself and Ladybug. I am wise, Marinette. But I am tens of thousands of years old, and even if I know what you are feeling, I cannot feel it myself. But Marinette?”

“Yes?”

“That is why there is more than one Miraculous. And that is why the greatest power in the Miraculouses comes in a pair. So that no matter what happens, no matter what you face...

You never, ever have to be alone.”

“Adrien was alone. Today, I mean. When I saw him, he just looked so... I mean, everyone loves him! Even Chloe's never mean to him! But the magic, it wiped everyone's memories when it freed them, and we were never brainwashed so we remember everything and no one else does, and he just... looked so alone.”

“And you think that maybe Chat Noir might feel like that?”

“No. I don't think that. I... I _know_ that. And I don't want him to be alone.”

“...Will you tell him? Or Adrien?”

“Not... not yet. But...”

“Hm?”

“I'm going to tell people. Eventually. Not everyone, and not just anyone either. But people will find out, eventually. And before they do, before I tell anyone else... I'm going to tell Chat Noir. He's going to be the first.”

“Hmm.”

“You're smiling.”

“Chat Noir is not alone as he thinks, if he has you.”

“Of course he has me, Tikki. Of _course_ he has me.”

It is a difficult thing, for a human to embrace a being that fits in the palm of her hand. But she held her kwami close to her chest, close enough to hear her heartbeat, and the intention behind it was understood, and returned.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about the wait, my friends. Thanks for reading!


End file.
